Revealed: The 77 hospital wards forced to close due to infections

May 26 2009 by Alison Dayani, Birmingham Mail

POTENTIALLY lethal infections have shut down 77 wards at Midland hospitals in the last 12 months, the Birmingham Mail can reveal.

Worryingly, a superbug which can kill in under 48 hours has been detected 40 times in Birmingham hospitals, disclosed NHS documents have revealed.

The true impact of one of the worst ever winters to hit the region’s hospitals for viruses can today be disclosed.

Sandwell Hospital was hit by the novovirus in January, leading to the main block being closed.

In December, Worcestershire Royal Hospital was closed to all visitors, and last October the Alexandra Hospital, in Redditch, banned anyone from entering, both incidents caused by infection outbreaks.

Infection professors have warned that dangerous Panton-Valentine Leukocidin, or PVL, could be the next superbug to strike at the heart of the NHS in the wake of MRSA and Clostridium difficile(C.diff) after it rapidly spread across America, affecting schools and playgrounds.

Latest figures acquired through the Freedom of Information Act by the Birmingham Mail show more than 40 patients have tested positive in Birmingham and the Black Country in recent tests for the more virulent and dangerous form of MRSA.

This comes on top of the first 33 cases across the greater West Midlands from 2004 to early 2007 when PVL MRSA claimed two lives, including nurse Maribel Espada, aged 33, from Stoke-on-Trent, who contracted the bug following an emergency Caesarian at University Hospital of North Staffordshire in September, 2006.

A second victim, who died months later, was one of Mrs Espada’s patients and nine other people in close contact with them were treated for a less harmful strain of the bug. A third unnamed Midland victim then died in January last year.

The data shows Sandwell Hospital, in West Bromwich, and City Hospital, in Winson Green, recorded 23 patients testing positive for PVL, while Walsall Manor Hospital’s microbiology service recorded nine cases when doing tests for patients in hospital and also in the community.