This first case in England is a serious development

Dr Georgia Duckworth, PHLS

An earlier scare in Bristol involved a bacteria which turned out to have insignificant resistance to the drug.

The patient involved later died, although the infection is not thought to have been the cause.

Hospital officials believe that no-one else in the building has caught the bug.

Costly

"Superbugs" such as MRSA are thought to cost thousands of lives - and hundreds of millions of pounds to the NHS each year.

Poor hospital hygiene practices are thought by many to contribute to the problem, and in July 2000, the government launched a �60m drive to improve cleanliness.

However, another key factor is the heavy use of antibiotics, particularly in the hospital environment.

Exposure to these drugs eventually leads to the survival of strains whose genetic make-up lends itself to drug resistance as weaker, competing strains are killed off.

'First choice'

Dr Georgia Duckworth, from the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS), which monitors infectious disease in the UK, said: "With the development of antibiotic resistance, Staphylococcus aureus infections have become harder to treat as there are fewer antibiotics that are effective.

"Since the discovery of MRSA, vancomycin has been the first choice antibiotic used in its treatment.

"This first case in England is a serious development."

Scientists are racing to develop new types of antibiotic as resistant strains of bacteria render existing drugs redundant.

New classes of drug have been introduced in recent years - but doctors are still being urged to cut back on antibiotic usage wherever possible to slow down the arrival of resistance.

Dr Duckworth said: "It underscores the fact that there is no cause for complacency in antibiotic usage - whenever we use an antibiotic, even if totally appropriately, we encourage the development of resistance to it."