A PATIENT at York Hospital has caught the potentially-deadly MRSA superbug, the Evening Press can reveal today.

The victim, a woman in her 50s, was admitted to hospital six weeks ago after suffering a serious stroke. But doctors told her weeks later that she had caught the infection in a swollen knee after a series of tests were carried out.

The case is not believed to be life threatening, but sources said she was being bathed in an antiseptic solution to try and combat the infection. Visitors must also rub alcohol gel into their hands and wear gloves before seeing her.

The woman, who lives in a village near York, is in an isolated ward so other patients are not believed to be at risk.

A friend of the woman, who asked not to be named, said she was "very shocked" when doctors broke the news to her.

"They couldn't understand why her knee was swollen so they drew some fluid off it to carry out tests and found out the superbug was in it," he said.

"I feel that hygiene and cleanliness seems to be very poor at the hospital. I believe the floor of my local supermarket is cleaner."

The friend said the woman would undergo the bathing treatment before being retested for the bug later this week.

The MRSA superbug has become a hot topic at the General Election, with the Conservatives pledging to spend £52 million on fighting the infection.

But hospital bosses in Harrogate have criticised Tory leader Michael Howard after he leafleted thousands of homes quoting misleading figures about MRSA rates.

In North Yorkshire, the leaflets claimed there had been 247 MRSA cases at the local hospital in the last year when there had been only six. The Tories said they should have made clear these were regional figures.

Meanwhile, dirty hospitals are among patients' top concerns about the NHS, according to a new national report out today.

The Evening Press recently reported that cases of MRSA superbugs had remained stable at York's hospitals.

Figures showed that 13 hospital-acquired MRSA infections were recorded by York Health Services NHS Trust between April and September last year - the same as in the six months to March 2004.

In a statement from York Hospitals NHS Trust, the director of infection prevention and control said: "MRSA is an issue in all hospitals and the bacteria can be dangerous particularly if it enters the bloodstream.

"We can confirm that during a routine screening at York District Hospital we found one patient to have MRSA. In this case the patient does not have MRSA in their bloodstream and it is not causing an infection."

Worries about MRSA

IN AUGUST 2000 the Evening Press featured Steridan Stead of Stockton Lane, York, whose mother, Joan Hargreaves, aged 62, contracted MRSA, while recovering from an operation at York Hospital. Mrs Hargreaves died from pneumonia and septicaemia but also caught the "superbug".

Mrs Stead said: "When my mother died I'd never heard of MRSA, but over the last five years it's come to the fore more and more and I've been following the news about it very closely.

"Obviously it's something I feel very strongly about and at the time all I remember is what happened at York Hospital.

"I haven't been back recently to see what the wards are like, but I think it's absolutely disgraceful that people are still catching MRSA nearly five years on."

The superbug MRSA - methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (Staph) - is a type of bacteria that is resistant to certain antibiotics. Staph infections, including MRSA, occur most often among patients in hospitals and healthcare facilities such as nursing homes who have weakened immune systems.

Updated: 10:14 Monday, April 18, 2005