Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 134: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the number of MRSA cases recorded to date; if the number of incidences are on the decrease or otherwise; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8763/06]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The Health Protection Surveillance Centre collects data on MRSA bacteraemia, also known as bloodstream infection or blood poisoning, for the purposes of the surveillance, prevention and control of MRSA as part of the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System. The European system, which collects data on the first episode of bloodstream infection per patient per quarter, was designed to allow comparison of antimicrobial resistance data between countries and possibly regions but not between hospitals. The Irish data for the system, which is published on a quarterly basis by the HPSC, showed that 553 cases of MRSA were reported in 2004. The figure for the first nine months of 2005 is 454. Ireland will participate this year in the Hospital Infection Society's prevalence survey of health care-associated infections, to be carried out in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The survey will give the Department of Health and Children and the Health Service Executive accurate and comparable data on the prevalence of health care-associated infections including MRSA in acute hospitals in Ireland. The data gathered from hospitals can be compares with similar data obtained in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.