INFECTION rates of hospital-acquired superbugs are still on the rise across Hampshire.

Latest figures reveal the number of specimens from patients that tested positive for clostridium difficile in laboratories run by Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust and Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare Trust has increased.

While most of the cases, involving patients aged 65 and over, were acquired in general hospitals there were some incidents of people picking up the infection in community hospitals and other healthcare settings.

Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust, responsible for running the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, saw the number of clostridium difficile cases it dealt with increase from 128 in 2005 to 156 in 2006 - a rise of 22 per cent.

Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, responsible for running Southampton General, the Royal South Hants and the Princess Anne, has seen an increase of 2.6 per cent in the number of cases it has tested of clostridium difficile.

In 2006 there were 785 cases compared to 765 cases the previous year.

Of the 785 cases, 686 were detected across Southampton's three hospitals.

The bacterium produces spores that can survive a long time in unclean hospital environments and mostly affects elderly patients with other underlying diseases.

It causes diarrhoea, can lead to bleeding from the colon and be fatal.

Hospital bosses in Southampton have been more successful in their crackdown on MRSA with new cleaning measures appearing to have an effect.

Across Southampton's three hospitals the number of reports of MRSA was cut by a third from 92 cases (April 2005 to March 2006) to 61 last year (April 2006 - March 2007).

However the trust running the Royal Hampshire County Hospital saw its MRSA infection rates increase from five (April 2005 to March 2006) to 13 cases. (April 2006 to March 2007).

No one was available from the Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare trust for a comment.

Judy Gillow, director of nursing at SUHT, said: "Every single case of MRSA is subjected to a rigorous review to help us understand how it has occurred and establish any lessons which can be learned in order to reduce infection rates in the future.

"We are also working extremely hard to reduce cases of clostridium difficile, primarily by immediately isolating patients who develop diarrhoea and by ensuring antibiotics are not over-prescribed."