WILTSHIRE TIMES EXCLUSIVE: HOSPITAL superbug MRSA has struck down two elderly patients recovering from operations at Warminster Community Hospital.

The patients have been confined to isolation while medical staff carry out stringent hygiene procedures to prevent others falling ill from the bug, which is resistant to many antibiotics and can kill if it enters the blood.

Doctors say the MRSA has not developed into the life-threatening form. Both patients arrived at the hospital after surgery at the RUH in Bath.

The discovery of the killer bug in west Wiltshire follows the publication of a report, by the Health Protection Agency which found deaths caused by MRSA have increased 15-fold over the past 10 years.

Alison Flowers, senior nurse and matron at Warminster Community Hospital, said: "We can confirm two patients at the hospital have been diagnosed with the MRSA bug.

"It is not an uncommon condition for patients to have this type of bug if they have been to hospital at some stage.

"Reports of patients with MRSA are sporadic but these are thcondition for patients to have this type of bug if they have been to hospital at some stage.

"We are very thorough in most circumstances because hospitals are such a difficult place to control infections but we will continue to help with the rehabilitation."

One patient is laid up for a second week, while a further patient has been diagnosed within the past seven days.

Doctors have not been able to identify where the MRSA originated and are unable to provide details of the infected.

The hospital matron said: "We are unable to tell where they got the bug they didn't come here for primary treatment so they must have been carrying it when they arrived. At the moment the bug is not acute and we don't expect it to become acute."

One medical insider claimed MRSA is prevalent across the region and knew of no hospitals that had escaped the bug, but a spokesman for West Wiltshire Primary Care played down the threat to other patients and nearby hospitals.

She said: "There is no threat to other patients in the hospital because we have all the correct procedures in place."

"The condition is not yet life threatening and the patients are in isolation with all medical procedures to treat MRSA being carried out."

Experts blame the nationwide spread of the hospital superbug on poor hospital hygiene and recently MRSA has become resistant to many antibiotics.

At worst the MRSA bug can lead to the amputation of limbs of even death.

A spokeswoman for the RUH said: "MRSA is found across the country not just in Warminster, I would not say it is everywhere but the condition is definitely not rare.

"We cannot reveal how many other patients in west Wiltshire have contracted the MRSA bug but there were 45 cases in the RUH catchment area in 2003/04 of serious blood borne variety."

MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) infects wounds and the number of deaths from the infection have increased 15-fold from 51 in 1993 to 800 in 2002, according to research carried out by the Health Protection Agency.

Dr Georgina Duckworth, MRSA expert at the agency, said: "By following good infection control procedures the spread of MRSA and other infections in hospitals can be limited and controlled."