Written question asked by Charles Hendry (Conservative) on Wednesday, 23 March 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 5 April 2005. It was answered by Melanie Johnson (Labour) on Tuesday, 5 April 2005 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make a statement on the reasons for changing the name of the antibiotic `methicillin' to `meticillin'; and whether the collation of statistics on deaths from MRSA includes cases where MRSA is described as `meticillin resistant staphyllococcus aureus'.

Answer: Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the reasons for changing the name of the antibiotic `methicillin' to `meticillin'; and whether the collation of statistics on deaths from MRSA includes cases where MRSA is described as `meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus'. [224139] Miss Melanie Johnson: [holding answer 4 April 2005]: The name of the antibiotic known as methicillin has been changed to meticillin. This is in accordance with the International Pharmacopoeia guidelines. The change in nomenclature does not affect statistics on deaths from meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) as data collected by the Office for National Statistics includes references to both meticillin and methicillin.

Secondary information