The two people who died after becoming infected with a lethal strain of bacterium not seen before in UK hospitals were a patient and a healthcare worker at the North Staffordshire NHS University hospital, it was confirmed yesterday.
The hospital said the deaths occurred in March and September this year. Only after the second death, "which set alarm bells ringing", according to a spokesman, did the hospital discover that a variant of the "superbug" MRSA was to blame. This form of MRSA, which has been detected in the community and killed a young marine after a leg injury became infected, produces a toxin called PVL - panton valentine leukocidin - which kills white blood cells, damaging the body's immune system and making it unable to fight off other infections such as pneumonia.
Nine further cases of PVL-producing MRSA were identified at the hospital, but no other patients have died. "No current patients have been identified as affected. All those affected have been informed and there is no need for any other patient to be concerned," the hospital said.
It was not known whether the patients became infected within the hospital or already had it when they arrived. The hospital said this form of MRSA, once identified, was easier to treat with antibiotics than the conventional kind.
MRSA is usually a threat to older people, but PVL-producing MRSA has killed younger ones. The bacterium is harmlessly carried on the skin, but can become lethal if it enters the bloodstream. The nurse who was infected was also a patient. The toxin on her skin is thought to have entered her body after she had an operation at the hospital.
The Health Protection Agency has warned hospital staff to be on the watch for signs of infection. "When people contract PVL-producing strains of MRSA, they usually experience a skin infection such as a boil or abscess," said Dr Angela Kearns, an MRSA expert with the HPA. Most infections can be treated successfully with everyday antibiotics but occasionally a more severe infection may occur.
"The Health Protection Agency is advising the hospital on outbreak control measures, and will continue to monitor MRSA infection nationally."
The marine who died was Richard Campbell-Smith, 18. He was four weeks from the end of his 32-week course at the commando training centre in Lympstone, Devon, when he reportedly scratched his legs while running on October 31 2004.
He was admitted to the medical unit and later taken to the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital, where he died on November 2. A postmortem examination showed heart and respiratory failure, and traces of PVL were found.
A medical expert at his inquest in Exeter said the disease was thought to have died out in the 1950s, but she had seen two cases in nine weeks, and wanted to alert the public and medics.
