Hospital Deaths Due to Superbugs Decline

A new report released by the General Register Office for Scotland has revealed that the number of deaths due to hospital "superbugs" has nearly halved last year.

According to the data, the number of deaths due to Clostridium difficile (C.diff) fell from 248 in 2008 to 139 last year. The number of MRSA fatalities too saw a 50 percent drop from 48 to 24.

The figures were released as a part of the inquiry launch early this year to look into the C.diff outbreak that caused the deaths of 18 people at Vale of Leven hospital in Alexandria between December 2007 and June 2008.

The figures also show that the number of deaths where in C.diff was viewed as a contributory factor fell from 517 to 326 last year.

"Infection rates have been steadily declining in recent months and are now at their lowest level since monitoring began. It is good news that, as we expected, death rates are mirroring this trend. It's vital that people have confidence in the quality of care they receive if they need hospital treatment and that's why we have put in place a wide range of measures designed to both crackdown on these infections and improve healthcare outcomes", Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said.


Source: Medindia