CDAD hit the national headlines last year after 49 people died in eight months in Leicester after catching the bug.

The spread of the disease, which causes infectious diarrhoea, high temperatures and severe inflammation, was described as “rapid” and “challenging” to control by a Raigmore consultant.

A distinguished professor of bacteriology said one possible reason for the increase could be that overstretched staff did not have enough time to practice basic hygiene.

Hugh Pennington, who spent 40 years as professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University and was chairman of the inquiry into the 1996 E.coli outbreak in central Scotland, also said that many CDAD cases followed antibiotic treatment.

“There’s no doubt it kills more people than MRSA, about three times more people,” he said.

“It produces a poison; a toxic illness that’s really quite serious. It often effects people who are already ill with something else and it is very often the last straw.

“People have rather underestimated these bugs and are now paying the price. When CDAD gets itself established in a hospital, it takes quite a long time to get rid of it.”

The internationally respected expert said there were a few possible reasons for the increase in cases.

“It may be due to everything that hospitals have got to do — more and more patients is a reason why staff just don’t have the time to do things like basic hygiene,” he explained.

“There may be strains of the bug about that are better at causing mischief and also we are getting better at counting the number of cases.”

He emphasised its spread could be controlled by treatment procedures, such as using antibiotics more wisely, as well as ensuring high levels of hygiene among staff, patients and visitors.

“It is vitally important for hospitals to have good old fashioned hygiene in place,” he added.

Raigmore Hospital’s cleanliness was called into question last year after inspectors, who watched cleaners at work, gave it a compliance rating of only 83.1 per cent, the worst in the country.

However it redeemed itself during the following quarter between July and September, achieving a 92.1 per cent pass mark.

Cases of CDAD rose nationally in 2005 by 17 per cent, with 51,000 infections reported to the Health Protection Agency with a death rate of around 5 per cent.

A spokeswoman for Raigmore Hospital said yesterday it was “not aware” of anyone dying from CDAD in Inverness and highlighted a 40 per cent drop in MRSA levels between 2005 and 2006.

Andrew Hay, NHS Highland consultant microbiologist, outlined measures to bring the CDAD figures down after his report on the disease was presented to NHS Highland’s board meeting on Tuesday in Inverness.

“These include the recent appointment of two hand hygiene co-ordinators as part of the National Hand Hygiene campaign as well as proposals to increase the proportion of beds as single cubicles,” he said. “There are also plans to recruit an antimicrobial pharmacist to improve antibiotic prescribing, which will be influential in controlling the spread of CDAD.”

Dave Petrie, Highlands and Islands Conservative MSP, called for the return of ward sisters. “We’ve advocated going back to ward sisters, someone to monitor people coming in and out.”

Fergus Ewing, SNP MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, said the solution could lie abroad.

“In the long term we may well require to implement the Dutch practice of using screens to detect bugs on each person,” he said.

“I’m writing to the health minister to ask whether the Scottish Executive health policy unit have explored the cost of this as well as the benefits. In addition, I’m seeking a more detailed briefing from the local health board, who I’m sure are taking this problem very seriously,” he added.

* First discovered in 1961, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an infection that causes a range of symptoms including boils and a “flesh-eating disease”, and is resistant to all penicillins. A patient infected with it is five times more likely to die than other patients.

calum.ross@inverness-courier.co.uk

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