THE number of dangerous infections acquired at Whipps Cross University Hospital has fallen, according to figures released by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) today.

HPA released figures showing MRSA and Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infection rates in the period to September last year.

The number of MRSA reports at Whipps Cross has fallen from 12 in July to September 2006, to one in the same period last year.

The MRSA rate per 10,000 beds has dropped from 1.42 to 0.44.

The number people aged 65 or over catching C.diff had increased at Whipps year by year, reaching 403 in 2006.

But that figure also appears to be falling, the number of cases from January to September last year was 168.

Ten people aged under 65 caught the infection from July to September last year, compared to 15 from April to June.

The figures are part of a decrease in MRSA and C.diff nationally. MRSA infections are 18 per cent down on the previous quarter while the C.diff decrease is 21 per cent.

HPA department head Dr Georgia Duckworth said: "This continued decrease in MRSA bloodstream infections is a major achievement against the seemingly unstoppable rise we saw throughout the 90s."

MRSA is a varition of a common bacterium that has evolved to survive treatment with antiobiotics, while C.diff is a severe infection of the colon.