Hospital superbug success

East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs both the Conquest in Hastings and Eastbourne DGH, has seen very low incidents of the bug clostridium difficile in its latest report released to the Observer.

A spokeswoman for the Trust said: "We have a clostridium difficile rate of 1.11 per 1,000 bed days, a 30 per cent fall in the 2003 figures which we're very pleased with.

"Latest statistics for 2005 also show a further 10 per cent reduction.

"The latest figures put us tenth out of 24 in the region.

"There were 43,672 cases diagnosed in England, Ireland, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2004."

Clostridium difficile is a germ which can be found harmlessly in the gut of healthy adults especially those over the age of 65.

It can also cause diarrhoea following antibiotic therapy when the balance of bacteria in the gut is disturbed.

The Health Secretary ordered an independent inquiry back in June after several patients at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital were struck down with the bug.

If infection develops the symptoms of the bug can vary from abdominal pain and fever, to diarrhoea and much more unusually to colitis (inflammation of the bowel).

The elderly and the immobile are most susceptible to illness with clostridium difficile diarrhoea.

Although infection usually results from altering the normal balance of bacteria in the intestine, the bacteria can contaminate the environment and be passed by contact from person to person.

The hospital Trust has implemented several policies in attempting to combat the bug.

Staff only use antibiotics when indicated and use narrow spectrum antibiotics targeting the likely bacteria causing the disease.

Patients with symptoms of diarrhoea due to clostridium difficile are routinely isolated in single rooms or in bays within East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust to reduce further the risk of cross-infection.