Scotland Reports Bump Up In C. diff Deaths: MRSA Down 8 Percent
As we’ve been following both Clostridium difficile (C. diff) and Meticillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), we’ve noted that both Superbugs get a lot of attention in the United Kingdom.
We are not sure if this is ever going to figure into the big health insurance reform debate in the United States, but public hospitals in England and Scotland appear to be places you might want to avoid if you want to escape both C. diff and MRSA.
For example, the ”Registrar General” in Scotland just reported that C diff claimed the lives of 248 last year, up 12.7 percent. What they call “the hospital infection” contributed to the deaths of another 517 Scots.
MRSA killed another 48 Scots in 2008, down 8 percent from the year earlier.
Last year started with a C. diff outbreak at the Vale of Leven Hospital in Dunbartonshire, causing death rates to peak in the first half of the year, and then decline some.
That was “cautious grounds for optimism,” according to Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon, but not a reason to be complacent. The government is installing “an electronic bed management system” and “infection tracking software” to combat the Superbugs in the public hospitals.
