PATIENTS CARRYING the MRSA superbug were continuing to be treated in isolation at Ninewells Hospital yesterday with their ward still closed to new admissions.

Ward 11, which treats mostly elderly patients with vascular problems, stopped admitting new patients 11 days ago after 16 of the 24 people receiving treatment there were found to have the antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

All of those affected are only carriers of MRSA and none of them has developed bacteraemia where the bug enters the blood system with potentially fatal consequences.

Although those patients with MRSA are still being treated in the same ward as those without, separate teams of nurses have been employed to prevent the spread of the bug. Inspection control specialists are continuing to monitor the situation.

NHS Tayside was asked by The Courier if figures were available for MRSA infection amongst patients in other wards.

A spokeswoman said that information on MRSA infections was regularly submitted to a Government statistics agency which then collated the results and passed them on to Health Protection Scotland, a new organisation established by the Scottish Executive to strengthen and co-ordinate health protection in Scotland.

Infection control teams across the health board area were responsible for monitoring the incidence of MRSA in hospital wards and passing the information to the statistics agency.

Infection figures for the 45 in-patient wards were not collated centrally by Tayside NHS although the information was available and could be brought together if necessary.

The latest MRSA quarterly figures for April to June were published by Health Protection Scotland last month and those for July to last month are due out in December.

Tayside NHS said that, for the last four quarters, the numbers of people affected by bacteraemia were 35, 27, 24 and 26.