MRSA infection rates have declined by 90 per cent in Malta over recent years, Health Minister Chris Fearne said today. 

While in 2009 an average of two patients out of every 1,000 at Mater Dei hospital tested positive for the so-called superbug, by 2016 infection rates had plummeted to 0.16 per 1,000 cases. 

Dr Fearne attributed the decline to better infection control education and practices among hospital staff and patients. He was speaking at a conference bringing together chief medical, dental and nursing officers from EU member states. 

Hospitals in other western countries have also witnessed declines in MRSA infection rates over the past decade. A study by the US-based Centre for Disease Control found that there were 30,800 fewer MRSA hospital cases in 2011 than in 2005 across the USA - a 54 per cent decline - while hospitals serving US war veterans managed to bring rates down by more than 80 per cent between 2007 and 2015. 

MRSA, which stands for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is a bacterium that has proven resistant to many antibiotics. The World Health Organisation estimates that people with MRSA are 64 per cent more likely to die than people with a non-resistant form of the infection.