Sick children may be at greater risk from hospital super-bugs than has previously been thought, according to a leading British expert.
Monitoring at Birmingham Children’s Hospital has shown that many more children carry MRSA infection than previously thought.
Consultant microbiologist Dr Jim Gray said the hospital was now screening all children admitted to its intensive care unit.
Tough regulations on screening have been issued to British hospitals – but paediatric units were exempted.
Dr Gray said: "Something else that is becoming apparent as we roll out a wider screening programme of our patients is that levels of MRSA amongst children are actually higher than is commonly believed.
"It is a generally accepted belief in the medical profession that children are not really carriers of the MRSA bacterium, however we are increasingly finding that this is not the case."
He added: "It is vital to prevent MRSA from entering the ICU as it is extremely serious and potentially fatal for children who are already critically ill."
"We are learning a lot and asking ourselves a great many questions. For example, because of the nature of their condition, some of our haematology patients may be admitted as often as three or four times per month.
"Is it necessary and helpful to screen them every time they come back? Hopefully the answers that we obtain will assist other UK health trusts in developing a best practice policy regarding MRSA in child patients."
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