Northern Ireland Clostridium difficile related deaths jump 22% in one year

The bad news is, reports the BBC that Clostridium difficile, was mentioned on the death certificates of 77 people in Northern Ireland last year up 22% ( 14) from 2006 - a province way ahead of the mainland for recording and reporting health statsistics.

30 such deaths were recorded in the last 4 months of 2007 at the following hospitals ;

Altnagelvin - 1
Antrim - 9
Belfast City - 4
Causeway - 1
Craigavon - 2
Robinson Memorial - 1
Royal Victoria - 1
Ulster - 3
Whiteabbey - 5
All others - 3

See previous posts on the outbreak in Northern Ireland here. and it's connection to the emerging and highly virulent ribotype o27 variant.

A spokesman for the Northern Health and Social Care Trust confirmed that it is now dealing with 15 'active' cases of C.Difficile with six of those classified as recovering. This is a drop from the previous week 16active cases and 8 'recovering' - the week before, there were 27 cases in total.

UPDATE Monday 11th Feb BBC - More C. diff deaths in Northern Trust area

On Friday, the Department of Health released interim figures which showed it contributed to 77 deaths last year.

The total has not changed but a breakdown shows C. diff played a part in the deaths of 34 people in the Northern Trust area - nine more than previously said.