From the Telegraph, March 25, 2008:

Two superbugs are causing the deaths of more than 10,000 hospital patients every year, an expert has disclosed.

The number of deaths from MRSA and clostridium difficile is being underestimated by about 20 per cent, one of the country’s leading authorities on superbugs has said. Official figures put the number of deaths from the two infections at about 8,000 a year.

Mark Enright, a professor of molecular epidemiology at London’s Imperial College, said the number of deaths from MRSA and c.diff was significantly higher.

“I think it is at least 10,000 a year,” he said. “A lot of people are never tested for these infections and their deaths are put down to something else.”

Nearly 10 people are dying every day from c.diff, according to official figures, with even more dying from MRSA. In 2006, c.diff was recorded as the underlying cause of death for 3,490 people - a 69 per cent increase on the previous year.

Read the rest.