Green MP Sue Kedgley is calling for an urgent national strategy to contain the superbug explosion in New Zealand hospitals in light of information that there has been a 55 per cent increase in the incidence of MRSA infections in the year 1999-2000.

"These figures are alarming and show we have lost control of the problem. Following on from a 60 per cent increase the previous year, they show that the incidence of MRSA is growing exponentially," she said.

Ms Kedgley said New Zealand needs to make MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphlyococcus aureus) a notifiable disease so that we know how many people are getting it.

In answer to a question from Sue Kedgley, Health Minister Annette King said since May 1999 when a campaign was started to reduce unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics, there had been a 36 per cent reduction in prescribing of antibiotics to New Zealanders.

"We need to make a similar reduction in prescribing antibiotics to animals," Ms Kedgley said.

"Its time for the government to stop procrastinating on the issue and prohibit the feeding of antibiotics to animals who are not sick," she said.

Ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>