A RECENT outbreak of Clostridium difficile at Dublin's Beaumont Hospital caused the deaths of three patients and was a contributory factor in the deaths of a number of others, it was confirmed yesterday.
The hospital said 68 patients tested positive for the healthcare-associated infection between July 1st and October 31st.
"Of these, 29 per cent have died in that time from all causes, not necessarily Clostridium difficile," a spokesman said.
He added that the superbug was "known at this time to have been the primary cause of three deaths during this period, and to have been a factor in a number of others". It is not clear precisely how many deaths it was a factor in over the four-month period.
Half the cases of Clostridium difficile recorded over the period at Beaumont were of the virulent and highly-transmissible 027 strain.
The outbreak, the hospital says, has now been brought under control. "The underlying incidence of new cases is back to the baseline level experienced over the past two years," its spokesman said.
The bug is found in the intestines of 3 per cent of healthy adults. It causes a diarrhoea-type infection in vulnerable patients already on antibiotic therapy for other conditions.
A number of other hospitals have also experienced outbreaks of Clostridium difficile in the recent past. An outbreak at Galway's University College Hospital in January, when 22 cases of infection were reported, was also said to have been a contributory factor in a number of patient deaths. Most of the patients affected had the 027 strain of the infection, and samples had to be sent to a laboratory in Cardiff to have them typed.
Earlier this year, it emerged that an outbreak at Ennis General Hospital in the first half of 2007 contributed to 13 patient deaths.
The bug was also a direct cause of death or a contributory cause of death in 10 patients at St Columcille's Hospital, Loughlinstown, Dublin, over a seven-month period last year.
Last May, it became mandatory for laboratory-confirmed cases of the infection to be reported to the national Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) by hospitals and other healthcare settings.
Latest figures from the HPSC indicate 1,237 cases of infection had been notified to it by October 25th last, with an average of 49 cases being reported every week.
Beaumont said a programme of additional intensive cleaning of every ward in which a Clostridium difficile-positive patient was identified commenced in July and has continued since then.
"It is being continued in November, the return to baseline levels of new infections notwithstanding," its spokesman said.
"In line with infection-control guidelines, all Clostridium difficile symptomatic patients in Beaumont are isolated.
"As an additional precaution, and one not required by the guidelines, any patient that has tested positive for 027 is isolated whether or not they are currently symptomatic.
"Beaumont's experience is in line with current experience here in Ireland and internationally," he added.
Dr James Reilly, Fine Gael's health spokesman, said what happened at Beaumont was very worrying and was a further reflection on the overcrowded state of our hospitals and overstretched staff.
He said 57,000 bed days were lost last year at Beaumont and the Mater hospitals due to delayed discharges. If these beds were available the pressure would be off and there would be more room to isolate patients.
"It makes a mockery out of the Health Minister's assertions that matters are improving. They are not."