The superbug MRSA that has been lurking in Mater Dei Hospital threatening to undermine its reputation is slowly retreating, according to the latest figures.
There were 28 MRSA infections in blood identified at Mater Dei this year, down from 31 cases last year and the 39 identified in 2007 at St Luke’s Hospital before migrating to Mater Dei, Infection Control Committee chairman Michael Borg said.
“I’m happy to report we are seeing a trend for the better with the number of MRSA infections at Mater Dei improving,” he said when contacted.
The decrease, although small, is encouraging and Dr Borg attributes this shift to a change in culture among doctors and nurses when it comes to scrubbing up their hand hygiene habits.
Last December, The Sunday Times had reported that just one in 10 medical staff at Mater Dei washed their hands before treating or examining patients, which exposed habits that increased the spread of potentially deadly infections.
MRSA is a type of bacteria commonly found on the skin and in the noses of healthy people. Although it is usually harmless, it may occasionally get into the body through breaks in the skin such as abrasions, cuts, wounds, surgical incisions or catheters, and cause infection.
The situation has improved drastically within one year and now some 50 per cent of healthcare workers are washing their hands or using alco hol rubs before examining or treating patients, compared with nine per cent in December 2009.
“Massive progress has been registered – the staff have been very cooperative and practices are changing for the better. We are gauging this through regular audits in the wards where we observe hand hygiene performance as well consumption levels of alcohol hand rub,” Dr Borg said.
“It will take some time until we see this good practice translate into significantly lower MRSA levels at the hospital because of all the different factors that contribute to the spread of the superbug, but we are on the right track.”
Dr Borg urged doctors and nurses to keep up this momentum: “Our aim is to reach the levels of 75 per cent, achieved at the WHO hand hygiene reference hospital in Geneva, a role model for its infection prevention systems.”
He is also appealing to GPs and the community to reduce the intake of antibiotics.
Once described as a wonder drug, antibiotics are losing the battle against superbugs such as MRSA, which are becoming increasingly resistant to the drug due to the excessive misuse and over-prescription.
E. coli, a bacterium that can cause common infections outside hospital, is another that is becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics within the community – up to 30 per cent in 2009 from 15 per cent in 2005.
Patients needlessly took antibiotics for viral infections such as the flu (19 per cent), a sore throat (23 per cent) and a cold (12 per cent), according to a Eurobarometer study.
This same study, released earlier this year, showed Malta was the second highest antibiotic consumer in the EU with 55 per cent of the population taking at least one course of antibiotics during the year, much higher than the European average of 40 per cent.
In Scandinavian countries, less than one in four people resort to antibiotics despite the greater risk of respiratory infections from the colder climate.
The situation has improved in recent years, with only five per cent of these antibiotics being obtained without a medical prescription, marking a decrease in the problem which stood at 17 per cent 10 years ago.
“We now need to tackle the 95 per cent that are prescribed,, especially the half given unnecessarily for viral conditions,” he said.
Dr Borg maligned the prevalent “just-in-case syndrome” where antibiotics were given to prevent the infection going down to the bronchi. He said there was no evidence in the scientific literature of any benefits of treating a secondary infection when this had not yet developed.
“If you do not have fever and can continue with your normal daily routine, it is highly unlikely you have a bacterial infection – viral infections will not be cured or improved with antibiotics.”