Infection control stops new superbug

6:38pm Monday 12th May 2008

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A DEADLY new superbug has yet to hit Worcestershire's hospitals says a health chief.

The latest threat to health on our hospital wards is called Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, or 'Steno' for short, and lives in damp areas like shower heads, catheters and breathing tubes.

Some strains of the bug are resistant to all available antibiotics and cases have soared by 40 per cent between 2001 and 2006 to 1,000 a year.

Steno, which kills around 300 Britons a year, enters the bloodstream where it multiplies and can cause septicaemia which is potentially fatal.

Richard Harling, director of public health for Worcestershire Primary Care Trust, said he was not aware of any cases at any of the community hospitals at Malvern, Pershore, Evesham or Bromsgrove managed by the PCT or at the acute hospitals - Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester, Kidderminster Hospital or the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch.

He said: "We have done quite well with our standard of infection control both in terms of the acute trust and at the community hospitals. We wouldn't expect it to be a problem.

"That's not to say it's never going to be. We are likely to have one or more cases. We want to be keeping it down to a handful.

"The recent deep clean should help to prevent all of these hospital-acquired infections."

Dr Anne Dyas, consultant microbiologist and associate director of infection prevention and control at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: "This is recognised as an occasional cause of problems on intensive care units where patients are ventilated or have compromised immune systems.

"However, it is not regarded as a major healthcare-acquired infection problem at the moment."

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS recorded a record 113 days without a single case of MRSA between December and the end of March to win the Infection Control Team of the Year Award in 2007/08, presented by international microbiology specialists Oxoid.

The trust also completed its intensive £1.2 million deep clean for the March deadline.

The Department of Health said the Government is spending £270 million a year on NHS infection control and cleanliness.