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Dept of Health

Answer

Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) whether the voluntary reporting system by hospitals of MRSA cases is still in place; [184415] (2) how many MRSA cases were recorded by the Public Health Laboratory Service in each year from 1983; and if he will make a statement; [184416] (3) what the percentage change in the incidence of MRSA was in each year since 1989; and if he will make a statement. [184424] Dr. Ladyman: The voluntary reporting scheme is still operated by the Health Protection Agency and data on reported Staphylococcus aureus blood stream infections from 1990 to 2003 are shown in the table. The table includes the number of Staphylococcus aureus, the percentage of Staphylococcus aureus that are methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and the annual percentage increase in MRSA. Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (blood stream) laboratory reports and methicillin susceptibility (voluntary reporting scheme): England and Wales, 1990-2003 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. MRSA1 Percentage2 Percentage MSSA3 No information4 Total annual increase 1990 68 2 -- 3,924 865 4,857 1991 78 2 15 4,101 788 4,967 1992 114 3 46 4,373 560 5,047 1993 210 4 84 4,902 635 5,747 1994 452 9 115 4,784 724 5,960 1995 849 14 89 5,132 618 6,599 1996 1,603 22 89 5,523 640 7,766 1997 2,422 30 51 5,555 1,367 9,344 1998 2,851 34 18 5,430 1,930 10,211 1999 3,332 37 17 5,584 1,884 10,800 2000 4,272 42 28 5,861 1,976 12,109 2001 5,090 42 19 7,035 1,364 13,489 2002 5,310 43 4 7,130 1,086 13,526 2003 5,658 41 7 8,022 1,151 14,831 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Notes: 1 MRSA--methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection. 2 As a percentage of reports with methicillin susceptibility information. 3 MSSA--methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection. 4 No information--no information on antimicrobial susceptibility is available. Source: Health Protection Agency.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

424 c1984-6W;424 c1982-6W; 184415;184416;184424

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Blood Hospitals Diseases Infectious diseases Patients Public Health Laboratory Service MRSA

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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