asked Her Majesty’s Government:

How many isolations of meticillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus from England and Wales were analysed by the Staphylococcus Reference Laboratory of the Health Protection Agency to identify their type in each of the last three years, and, of these, how many were tested using the method known as pulsed field gel electrophoresis[HL207]

The Health Protection Agency Staphylococcus Reference Laboratory received a total of 18,290 staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) for typing in the past three years (2004, 2005 and 2006) from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The majority (about 70 per cent) are meticillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus. Pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was performed on 5,186 (28 per cent) of S. aureus received (see following table).