WORCESTERSHIRE health chiefs are beating the deadly MRSA virus, it has been revealed.

There were a total of two reportable MRSA cases across Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust's hospitals in October 2005 - compared with a peak of seven in June this year.

Last month the trust only reported one - at the Alexandra Hospital - with Worcestershire Royal Hospital a MRSA bacteraemia-free zone throughout November.

Speaking at a meeting of the trust board at Worcestershire Royal Hospital director for infection prevention and control Dr Chris Catchpole said the reduction was down to the hard work of the trust.

He added: "The reason for these declines is often multi-factoral but it's certainly linked to increased awareness around management, our clean hands campaign as well as the national media coverage of the superbug.

"The second thing is there's now ownership of the issue by the trust rather than it being by one person or another."

However, the latest reported cases of the bug for the trust have brought the total for this year to 33 - only one off the target to reduce to for this year.

A total of 39 per cent of those reported so far have been detected within 48 hours of admission to hospital, with the trust aiming to further reduce the number of cases by 20 per cent during 2006/07.

But a trust spokesman said they had set themselves a difficult target this year to repeat last year's success in reducing MRSA bacteraemias.

He added that, as a result of their action plan, they had, however, been able to reduce the number of incidents across the trust in October and November.

Part of the trust's action included it joining the national 'cleanyourhands' campaign in the battle against the lethal superbug.

The latest news comes just over a year after a documentary team from ITV1's Tonight With Trevor McDonald claimed to reveal evidence of MRSA at Worcestershire Royal.

Speaking after the meeting, a trust spokesman stressed the cases reported were those where the bug had entered the bloodstream.

He added: "It's incredibly good news though because we're showing a significant reduction in MRSA rates across the trust over the last couple of months."