A “superbug” has resulted in the deaths of 16 people in Manchester over the last four years, the BBC has reported.
The BBC obtained the figures under the Freedom of Information Act, finding that 17 people, 16 of them in Manchester, died due to Klebsiella Pneumoniae Carbapenemase (KPC).
There were 1,241 patients struck in the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust area between 2009 and 2013, and the numbers rose year by year.
KPC is resistant to a group of antibiotics called carbapenems. These are seen as the last effective defence against multi-resistant bacterial infections in many cases.
The trust, which said it is working “strenuously” to reduce the infection, said all the fatality victims had been seriously ill with conditions like diabetes, kidney problems or transplant rejection.
But the enzyme used by KPC to nullify effects of antibiotics has entered other bacteria such as E-coli, said the trust which saw blood poisoning hit 62 patients, 14 of them confirmed dead within 30 days of infection.
This year has seen two more deaths confirmed.
Copyright Press Association 2014