Infection Prevention and Control 2016 recently highlighted the continued need for vigilance in the fight against healthcare associated infection, as well as the increasing threat posed by antimicrobial resistance. Louise Frampton reports.
Chaired by Derek Butler, elected chair of the charity MRSA Action UK, the Infection Prevention and Control 2016 conference investigated a variety of issues – from the recent increases in the rates of key healthcare-associated infection, the challenges posed by the ‘paradox of antibiotics’, to the need to improve detection of the ‘hidden killer’ sepsis.
Dr Russell Hope, head of mandatory surveillance, Public Health England, explained that a long running voluntary surveillance scheme of laboratory reported cases of bacteraemia showed increasing incidence of MRSA infections in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the 1990s. This generated significant media and public interest. In response, the Department of Health (DH) in England introduced a mandatory surveillance scheme for Staph. aureus bacteraemia in April 2001.
Following the introduction of Government targets on MRSA and the introduction of a variety of interventions, rates showed a significant decline. The Annual Epidemiological Commentary: Mandatory MRSA, MSSA and E. coli bacteraemia and C. difficile infection data, 2014/15 (published July 2015), showed that a total of 10,628 Staph. aureus bacteraemia were reported to Public Health England in 2014/15 through both the methicillin resistant Staph. aureus (MRSA) bacteraemia and methicillin susceptible Staph. aureus (MSSA) bacteraemia mandatory surveillance schemes.1
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