Superbug offensive is saving patients

Twenty-four lives have been saved since Mater Dei Hospital introduced an intensive campaign to annihilate the superbug MRSA in 2010. The reduction in MRSA blood infections has also seen the unnecessary suffering of patients cut down, and saved the hospital in excess of €100,000 a year, according to figures seen by The Sunday Times. “These positive results are an example of team effort par excellence – no one person, or one department or profession can reduce MRSA alone; it was the concerted effort of every healthcare profession in contact with our patients,” hospital CEO Joseph Caruana said when contacted. The notorious antibiotic-resistant superbug – Staphylococcus aureus – was threatening to undermine the hospital’s reputation. So in January 2010, Mater Dei rolled out a campaign to reduce the rate of infections. “MRSA and similar organisms are the threat to any hospital in the world, not only to Mater Dei, so these results are heartening because we have saved lives, reduced hardship and cut down on the length of patients’ stays,” Mr Caruana said. MRSA blood infections are among the most serious infections that can be acquired in any hospital. Studies undertaken as part of the...