The Mid-Western Health Board (MWHB) has rejected claims that it has failed to reveal the full extent of problems posed by the MRSA superbug in hospitals throughout the region.
In a statement issued yesterday, the board said there was no evidence to support suggestions that the problem was greater in the mid-west than in any other part of the country.
It added that information on MRSA had been available on the board's website since September, and that it was the only health board in Ireland to publish such information.
The MWHB's statement was issued in advance of tomorrow's RTÉ broadcast of a special Prime Time documentary, The Superbug, which examines the bacterial disease at national level and features the mid-west region.
The director of public health at the MWHB, Dr Kevin Kelleher, defended the board's track record in tackling the superbug and called for more information on the subject to help reduce what he called the present climate of fear.
"The rate of MRSA bacteraemia in this region is no different from the national average rate in Ireland, and all the indications are that it is falling.
"We published our figures where other regions failed to do so, but it is reassuring that the rates are falling despite the fact that we have been given insufficient funds by the Department of Health," said Dr Kelleher.
The statement added that the number of cases of MRSA bacteraemia in the mid-west fell from 39 to 35 between 2002 and 2003, and that this fall was evident in the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick, Ennis General Hospital and Croom Orthopaedic Hospital. Only Nenagh General Hospital showed an increase during this time from five cases to six.
Dr Kelleher added that the MWHB would continue to publish its findings.
"Crucially, there has been a lack of data on MRSA bacteraemia heretofore in Ireland, and we have led by publishing ours.
"Excuses have been proffered to resist publishing MRSA data, but the MWHB concurs with health authorities in other countries that publication of rates is useful. Without published validated data that are comparable there can be little done on an evidence-based approach," he said.