C. difficile deaths soar by 72 percent

By Tim Castle

LONDON (Reuters) - Deaths linked to the hospital superbug Clostridium difficile jumped by as much as 72 percent in 2006, official figures show.

But there was a small fall in mortalities related to the MRSA bug, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

There were 6,480 death certificates in England and Wales mentioning C. difficile in 2006, compared to 3,757 the year before.

In more than half the reported cases, it was listed as the underlying cause of death.

Department of Health microbiologist Brian Duerden told BBC television part of the rise was down to improved statistics.

"Although the numbers look like they have gone up by that huge amount, a lot of that is represented by much better recording by doctors on their death certificates," he said.

Duerden said the government had been putting pressure on doctors to tighten up their recording of hospital-acquired deaths.

"I think that is now coming through in these figures," he said.