The University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust in Stoke-on-Trent confirmed that a healthcare worker and a patient had died after falling victim to a form of the toxin Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) earlier this year.

The pair fell ill in March and September after becoming infected by a bacterium that had not been seen previously at the hospital, the trust said.

Six colleagues and housemates of the health worker were found to carry the bug, after staff who had direct contact with the nurse were screened after the outbreak.

There have also been three further cases, one of which was a former patient. The hospital said: “No current patients have been identified as affected. All those affected have been informed and there is no need for any other patient to be concerned. Where screening swabs from members of staff are positive for this, or any other strain of MRSA, they are being given decolonisation treatment and followed up by the occupational health department before returning to work.

“With the exception of one infection, it is not clear at this stage whether transmission has occurred within the hospital or, as is more common, in the community which it serves.”

The hospital said that it was taking advice from the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

Figures for the first seven months of the year show that up to 47 of the 55 patients treated for MRSA-related illness at the hospital contracted the bug within the 1,200-bed site. The eight other patients are thought to have been carrying the infection before admission.

The commonly known “hospital-associated MRSA” strains, which do not produce PVL, typically affect elderly hospitalised patients.

But PVL attacks white blood cells leaving the sufferer unable to fight infection and putting healthy people at risk.

The HPA said that strains of MRSA that produced PVL had been seen in Britain, but usually in the community rather than in a hospital.

It added: “This outbreak is the first time transmission and deaths due to this strain are known to have occurred in a healthcare setting in England and Wales.”

Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Health Secretary, said: “It is time for us to take on the threat of new and more dangerous bacteria.”

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