For years now we've been saying that hospitals are a dangerous place to be, especially if you're ill. The latest figures from the British government - which show a doubling of deaths from the MRSA superbug over the past four years - confirm this view.
The Office for National Statistics reveals that MRSA was cited as the cause of death in 955 cases in 2003, up from 487 in 1999.
Worrying as the figures are, experts reckon they are still seriously under-stated. Tony Field, chairman of the patient group MRSA Support, said that patients are dying in hospital from the superbug, but their illness is cited as the cause. "A cancer patient may get MRSA and die, but cancer will be cited as the cause of death, but MRSA would have played a contributing role. I would expect the true figure to be much more than 955," he told the BBC.
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