Also, there are by definition more people with diseases and open wounds in hospital, and more MRSA carriers. Often, hospital staff are carriers of the bug, without realising it. There is no known vaccine. Certain strains can be treated with expensive antibiotics - but that carries the risk of developing a mutant strain which is resistant to the new treatment. If that cannot cope with the germ, the patient dies.
Strict hygiene is the best defence.
The Commons report has found disturbing evidence that hospital staff are not following even basic procedures, like washing their hands between treatments. Hampered by years of savage spending controls, the NHS is struggling to provide even basic facilities. Last week, for example, surgeons at a Portsmouth hospital threatened to halt all but emergency operations in protest against the lack of properly sterilised instruments and equipment. A relatively simple monthly test costs 5, but that has to be multiplied by thousands of personnel, many of whom would have to be temporarily laid off and replacements found.