THE number of patients who caught the potentially fatal superbug MRSA in Gwent hospitals fell by almost a fifth last year - and the infection rate is well below Welsh and English averages.

But though Gwent Healthcare Trust's infection control chief said the figures are encouraging, he warned of a never-ending battle against superbugs.

There were 55 cases of hospital-acquired MRSA infection in Gwent during 2003/04, compared to 67 the previous year. The average in Gwent is 76 cases per 1,000,000 bed days, compared to an all-Wales average of 113 cases, and an English average of 170 cases.

Health chiefs in England have been criticised by the National Audit Office for not doing enough to fight MRSA in hospitals, but Gwent's lead infection control doctor Dr Neil Carbarns said improvements here reflect "a substantial increase in infection control resources".

"Infection control is everyone's business. We have been able to do much more work with a bigger team and our results reflect this," he said. "Nobody denies that things are not perfect, and given the capacity of superbugs to become resistant to measures designed to wipe them out, I don't think things ever will be.

"But there's a great deal being done to minimise risks, and a lot more we can do.

"One difficulty throughout the land is that hospitals do not have enough single isolation beds, as the number of infections was not anticipated when many of our hospitals were built. It was thought several decades ago that antibiotics and the like would conquer infections.

"But the difficulties we have with MRSA will turn up in the future in more common or garden diseases like pneumonia." Gwent has ten infection control nurses, involved in training all levels of staff, including doctors, nurses and cleaners. Their work also involves checking cleanliness and compliance, the quality of hand hygiene measures, and facilities available to wards and patients.

People scheduled for operations, particularly major surgery like hip and knee replacements, are screened several weeks in advance to identify if they are carrying MRSA - which can also be acquired in the community - and treat it.

Patients' complaints are investigated and infection control team members are available to discuss complainants' concerns.