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More than 1,600 cases of Clostridium difficile were reported by hospitals and healthcare professionals to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) last year.
Most infections were in older patients. Some 1,147 of the national total were in patients aged 65 years and over.
The figures, just published by the HPSC, relate to just eight months of the year as the infection only became notifiable on May 4th, 2008.
Most infections were reported among hospital inpatients, but 6 per cent were also classified as GP patients and 2.7 per cent as hospital outpatients.
Most cases of infection were reported in the eastern region, and the region reporting fewest cases was the northeast.
During the year six clostridium difficile outbreaks were reported, four of them in hospitals, one in a long-stay unit and another in a residential institution.
Watching TV linked to asthma
Young children who spend more than two hours a day watching television are almost twice as likely to develop asthma, according to a new report.
Researchers found there was close to double the incidence of asthma in 11 year olds if they had spent more than two hours a day in front of the television when they were three.
The study, published last night in the journal Thorax, used hours of television viewing as a proxy measure for sedentary behaviour.
About 6 per cent of children who had no symptoms of asthma at the age of three-and-a-half had developed the condition eight years later.
Almost two (1.8) children who watched more than two hours of television on a typical day developed asthma for every one child who watched less.
The study, led by researchers from the University of Glasgow, concluded: “Increased duration of TV viewing in early childhood is associated with the subsequent development of asthma.”
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