Fears are rising over superbug Clostridium Difficile in local hospitals after it emerged that eight more people have died in a month.

The Northern Health and Social Care Trust, which has been fighting the hospital superbug since last summer, confirmed there were eight more deaths in July in which C.Difficile was a contributory factor on the death certificate.

The latest casualties of the disease bring to 61 the provisional number linked to C.Difficile since the outbreak first took hold last summer — with 32 of those patients having died since January.

A spokesman for the Northern Health and Social Care Trust stressed, however, that the number of new infection cases was going down.

“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.”

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

While news of recent deaths is a setback to these aspirations, it is understood that C.Difficile rates have been dropping steadily in Northern Trust hospitals amid regional efforts to tackle all infections.

Dr Peter Flanagan, Medical Director, said the Trust was “saddened” by the deaths recorded in July.

He added that “such cases are difficult and distressing for clinical and medical staff in the Trust”.

But he said there had been some progress in combating the superbug — despite complications linked to relapsed cases.

“The rate of new infections is falling,” he said, adding: “There is considerably less transmission of the infection within Trust hospitals; that our infection prevention, control and isolation procedures are working.

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

Dr Flanagan said the regional figures reflect that more and more people are being admitted with the disease.

“We are also seeing an increase in the number of patients developing symptoms within 48 hours of admission to hospital which indicates that they were infected when admitted,” he said.