Five patients die in C.diff outbreak.

Byline: George Mair

FIVE elderly patients have died following an outbreak of the C.diff superbug in a Scots hospital.

Health chiefs yesterday confirmed that the infection - Clostridium difficile - had struck a total of eight people on the same geriatric ward.

Worryingly, seven were found to have contracted the more dangerous 027 strain of C.diff.

NHS Tayside said two patients on ward 31 of Ninewells Hospital in Dundee died as a direct result of the infection, while it was a contributory factor in three further deaths.

Neither the five victims nor the three survivors have so far been publicly named.

A spokesman for NHS Tayside said yesterday: 'Five patients have died over the past ten weeks.

'Two of these were due to the Clostridium difficile infection and there were three where it was a factor but not the main cause.' Dr Gabby Phillips, lead infection control doctor for Ninewells, said the ward remained closed to new admissions.

She said: 'In line with our infection control procedures, and as a precautionary measure, we closed the ward to new admissions while we were managing the infection and the ward remains closed.

'These cases of C.diff infection were detected very early, which meant we were then able to identify the 027 strain rapidly and reinforce all appropriate infection control measures.' Dr Phillips said that no new cases had been identified in the ward for ten days.

It is understood an outbreak was declared and the ward closed to new admissions eight weeks ago.

Yet only last month - at a time when the outbreak had already claimed at least one victim - NHS Tayside moved to quell fears over superbugs by reporting a 'downward' trend in infection rates.

A health board spokesman said last night: 'We have not kept it secret. It would have been inappropriate to have gone public with this while these patients were very, very ill and we were dealing with the outbreak.' Official statistics unveiled in August show C.diff killed a record 765 patients in Scotland last year.

The bug directly claimed 248 lives and was listed as a contributory factor in 517 further deaths.

This was more than one third higher than in 2007 - and a huge increase since 2000, when C.diff was the main cause of death in only 38 cases and a factor in a further 78.