We'll win fight against superbug (From Watford Observer)

We'll win fight against superbug

1:05pm Monday 8th January 2007 in

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THE local health service's medical director says he can stamp out a potentially fatal superbug.

Recorded cases of Clostridium difficile (C Diff), an antibiotic-associated diarrhoea and intestinal infection, peaked in the first half of 2006 when there were 80 cases a month at Watford General Hospital and Hemel Hempstead Hospital.

But the impact of new measures to combat the bug has slashed figures to 40 cases a month since September.

And Professor Graham Ramsay, medical director of West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, believes a new bowel management system will kill C Diff when the system begins in February.

Patients will be fitted with a soft latex catheter inside their lower bowel to drain diarrhoea into a bag.

Professor Ramsay said: "Many elderly patients were being incontinent, soiling the environment, and this prevents this completely. It's never been used to tackle C Diff but we are keen to show it will work.

"We are confident it will come down further and we should be able to get to a situation where we do not have C Diff at all."

Other measures have also been successful in helping to lower the number of cases.

Antibiotics are no longer prescribed to patients, except with the approval of a consultant, as some were known to increase the chances of C Diff growing in the bowel. Alternative medication is now provided.

Drugs that lowered stomach acid levels have been reduced because they raise the chances of infection, especially in elderly patients.

And wards are now cleaned using hypochlorite, which has proven to kill all C Diff spores.

However, Professor Ramsay conceded that, until the number of cases is reduced, patients with C Diff are unlikely to receive single rooms which would prevent the infection from spreading.

He said: "We do not have enough isolation rooms to isolate each patient.

"Once we reduce the number of cases we can do that but with the sheer numbers we cannot."