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ABOUT 800 patients caught a drug-resistant superbug in public hospitals last year, resulting in longer hospitalisations.
The bacteria, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus or MRSA, is found in all hospitals here as it is in most countries, including the United States and Britain.
The Ministry of Health (MOH), which issued a paper on this yesterday, said the rate of hospital infection in Singapore last year, at 2.5 cases per 1,000 patients, compares well against the US, where nearly four in 1,000 patients caught the bug in hospitals in 1999-2000.
Many healthy people carry MRSA on their skin or in their noses. It becomes a problem only if it enters the body through a wound in the skin. Aside from causing skin infections, it can attack bones, joints, the blood and vital organs like the lungs.
It is spread through dirty hands, as well as dirty bedding, towels and equipment.
MOH said the rate of hospital infection here has improved in recent years. It stood at three per 1,000 patients in 2002.
The improvement is due to more stringent care at public hospitals, for example enforcing measures to keep hands clean, MOH said.
But the better figures are no consolation for patients who do get infected as the bacteria is resistant to most medicines, and difficult to treat.
A recent paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that close to 19,000 patients in the US died of MRSA in 2005 - more than the number who died from Aids.
Britain reported more than 1,600 MRSA deaths in the same year.
There are no figures for Singapore, and MOH said it does not track deaths from MRSA.
The MOH spokesman was also not able to say how much longer patients who get such infections have to stay in hospital, but she admitted that their 'recovery could be affected'.
It is not known as well whether patients from all ward classes are equally at risk.
But MOH said the elderly with chronic problems, patients in intensive care or burns units, diabetics, patients with respiratory infection or those who are in hospital for long periods are more at risk.
The MOH study found that patients at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) were most at risk, with four out of 1,000 in-patients picking up the bug while there.
Following closely are Tan Tock Seng Hospital (3.7 patients per 1,000) and the National University Hospital (3.2 per 1,000).
SGH and NUH are tertiary hospitals which tend to get patients who are more severely ill, while TTSH houses the infectious disease centre for the country.
At the other end are KK Women's and Children's Hospital with only 0.3 cases per 1,000 patients and Changi General Hospital with 0.7. Alexandra Hospital had 1.6 cases per 1,000 patients.
The paper concluded that while infection rates here 'have remained relatively stable', there is always room for improvement.
salma@sph.com.sg
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