Hospital bug death toll rises to 9

Published on Saturday 21 June 2008 00:31

THE death toll in an outbreak of the C difficile bug at a Scottish hospital has risen to nine, officials said yesterday.

A rechecking of records has revealed that a patient already known to have the bug has died, the officials said.

The C diff hospital bug was the main cause of death, taking to nine the total number of deaths linked to the outbreak at the Vale of Leven Hospital in Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire.

The development was disclosed by NHS Greater Glasgow which said it followed "further rigorous re-checking" of patient records.

This had established that one patient, already known to be one of the C diff cases in the outbreak, had been transferred to the Royal Alexandra Hospital (RAH) in Paisley for surgical assessment, and had died there.

In a statement, the health board said: "While at the RAH all the appropriate infection control nursing procedures were carried out with regards to the care of this patient.

"This takes the total number of patients with C diff as their main cause of death to nine and a contributory factor in the deaths of a further eight patients."

The outbreak control team (OCT) has also learned of another case of C diff last month, in a patient who has since recovered. This brings to 55 the overall number of C diff cases in the six months from 1 December.

The number of patients now receiving treatment for the bug at the Vale of Leven Hospital has also risen – from three to four – but this does not change the overall total.

The fourth case is a patient who suffered a relapse and is now in a "stable" condition.

Dr Syed Ahmed, chairman of the OCT, said: "My deepest sympathy goes to the families of those who have died."

He added: "The OCT continues to be focused on the effective control of C diff at the Vale of Leven and a number of actions have already been taken since the OCT first met last week."