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Dept of Health

Answer

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what were the percentage changes in the incidence of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus in (a) the NHS and (b) the private sector in each of the past five years. [54015] Yvette Cooper: The mandatory reporting of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) bacteraemias by national health service acute trusts began in April 2001. The system does not cover private hospitals. The data are published quarterly in the CDR Weekly. The data collected so far can be used as baselines only and do not indicate trends. Microbiology laboratories in England and Wales have been voluntarily reporting MRSA bacteraemias to the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) for many years. Provisional quarterly data are published in the CDR Weekly. Corrected annual data have been published recently in the 1999-2000 Review of Communicable Disease. Some private microbiology laboratories report some infections to the PHLS, but these are a very small proportion of reports received. Data from a voluntary system are shown as follows: Laboratory reports of staphylococcus aureus isolated from blood and their susceptibility to methicillin: England and Wales, annual totals 1997-2001 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Total reports Susceptibility Sensitive to Resistant to Total Percentage not reported methicillin methicillin susceptibility (MRSA) (MRSA) reported 1997{1} 9,328 1,719 5,312 2,297 7,609 30.2 1998{1} 9,374 1,746 5,020 2,608 7,628 34.2 1999{1} 10,813 1,848 5,624 3,341 8,965 37.2 2000{1} 11,635 1,667 5,792 4,176 9,968 42.0 2001{2} 12,631 1,238 6,626 4,767 11,392 41.8 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} Corrected data (PHLS Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre 1999-2000 Review of Communicable Diseases) {2} Provisional data (CDR Weekly)

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

54015; 385 c725-6W;385 c725W

Session

2001-02

Subjects

Hospitals Infectious diseases Private sector NHS MRSA

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk