Fears over the spread of the deadly superbug Clostridium Difficile were growing last night after a second health trust declared an outbreak of the killer infection as the worst ever in the UK.

Just hours after the Northern Trust confirmed that a further eight deaths last month in the area were linked to C.Difficile, the Belfast Trust also announced an official outbreak after the number of cases doubled in a month.

The latest deaths in the Northern area, which occurred at Antrim Area Hospital, bring to 61 the provisional number linked to the bug since the outbreak first took hold last summer — with 40 of those patients having died since the beginning of this year.

But a Northern Trust spokesman insisted there was a reduction in the number of new infection cases.

“The Trust has identified a total of 19 new cases of Clostridium Difficile in July 2008,” he said.

“This is a reduction of four on the previous month and the trend shows a continuing fall in the rate of new infections. This is the lowest number of new infection cases in the Trust for more than 12 months.”

Dr Peter Flanagan, the Northern Trust’s medical director, said that although the rate of new infections is falling, the number of relapsed cases has increased.

“We are, however, seeing an increase in the number of relapsed cases,” Dr Flanagan said.

“This is a reflection of the nature of the illness that can reoccur in some patients for several months depending on the patient’s primary condition and whether there is a need to prescribe further antibiotic treatment.

“All of these patients have low levels of immunity to infection.”

A spokesman for the Belfast health and Social Care Trust last night told the Belfast Telegraph the rates in their area were being treated as an official outbreak, after cases more than doubled last month.

“We are treating this as an outbreak,” he said.

“In recent months the trend was in the right direction and in June the Belfast Trust was meeting its targets for C.Difficile.

“In July, however, this trend reversed and we had 58 cases recorded. This compared with 27 in the previous month.

“Today the figure is 28 patients with symptoms associated with C.Difficile infection.”

The spokesman confirmed there were, however, no deaths linked to the superbug last month.

At the end of June, Health Minister Michael McGimpsey spoke of his hope that an end to the outbreak could be imminent.

Belfast Trust’s medical director Dr Tony Stevens last night announced a step up in a range of measures to control and reduce C.Difficile in hospitals.

These include dedicated isolation wards specifically for patients identified with the infection, enhanced cleaning programmes, along with a revised guidance for doctor’s on prescribing antibiotics, updated procedures to help earlier identification of infection in patients being admitted to hospitals and strict adherence to the rules on visiting.

“It is our intention to deliver a knockout blow to C.Difficile in Belfast hospitals,” Dr Stevens said.

“We are building on the measures we have already put in place and drawing on the experience we have now accumulated and I am also asking the public to help us in the drive against C Difficile.”