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Article:
MRSA in Ireland by: Michael Kearney In Ireland those who run the hospitals would rather you did not know how many people were being infected as a result of a hospital acquired infection. Incredibly, journalists have been forced to use freedom of information legislation to prise the information from the hospitals and even then the picture is incomplete with some hospitals 'unable' to provide any figures at all and with no national figures available on the death rate from MRSA or other 'superbug' type infections. The Health Service Executive has said it will now ask all Irish hospitals to publish data on the prevalence of the potentially fatal superbug MRSA on a regular basis The best estimates at the moment are that there are about 8000 patients per annum picking up an infection in hospital and of that number approximately 550 go on to acquire a more serious bloodstream infection. A recent survey by the Irish Patients Association revealed that in '2003
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