Written question asked by Mike Weatherley (Conservative) on Monday, 24 January 2011, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 26 January 2011. It was answered by Simon Burns (Conservative) on Monday, 31 January 2011 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of MRSA infection were identified in NHS facilities in 2010.

Answer: There is currently published data available for the first 11 months of 2010, providing details of the number of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteraemias (bloodstream infections). A full year's data for 2010 will be available when data for December 2010 are published on 2 February 2010.Published monthly data indicate that between January 2010 and November 2010 there were a total of 1,514 MRSA bacteraemias reported by acute national health service trusts in England. Of this number, 766 were apportioned to acute trusts."Notes:""1. All acute trusts in England are obliged to report all cases of MRSA bloodstream infection to the Health Protection Agency (HPA). Data on other MRSA infections, that did not enter the bloodstream, are not included as they are not part of this mandatory surveillance system.""2. Trusts report all cases for which their laboratories process the specimens. This may not always reflect where the infection was acquired.""3. MRSA bacteraemias are considered to be "trust apportioned' cases if they meet all of these three criterion:""the location where the specimen was taken is "acute trust' or is not known;""the patient is an in-patient, emergency assessment, or is not known; and""the date that the specimen was taken was on or after day three of admission to hospital (where the day of admission is day one)."

Secondary information