FOI reveals full extent of MRSA infections in children at Great Ormond Street Hospital

FOI reveals full extent of MRSA infections in children at Great Ormond Street Hospital

Figures released under the UK Freedom of Information Act have revealed that four children aged three or under have died over the past five years after suffering MRSA infections at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. Twenty children over that period were found to have MRSA in their bloodstream, the most dangerous form of the superbug infection. The figures also revealed that 357 children aged three and under have been found with MRSA at the hospital in the past five years in the form of infections found in the nose, saliva or open wounds.

The full figures were only provided to the Sunday Times in response to a formal freedom of information request. Public relations managers at the hospital had previously informed reporters that only seven children aged three and under had been found to be infected with MRSA in the hospital in the past three years.

Hidden infant toll of MRSA (Sunday Times, 10 April 2005)