MORE than two thousand cases of a dangerous new hospital bug have been reported at hospitals across the region.

The first set of national statistics on clostridium difficile (C difficile) cases published yesterday suggests that the problem is far more widespread than expected.

While some North-East hospital trusts have had hundreds of cases, none of the region's hospitals are in the top 50 C difficile league table for English hospital trusts.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that at least 26 patients a year were dying in England as a result of becoming infected with the bug.

Figures showed there were 44,488 cases of C difficile among over-65s in England last year with 1,748 mentions of C difficile on death certificates in 2003.

There were only about 1,000 cases a year in the early 1990s.

C difficile can cause severe diarrhoea and potentially life-threatening inflammation of the bowel. So far, it has mostly affected elderly people, although there are reports that it has hit younger patients.

The issue of hospital cleanliness is seen as the key to infection control, with the need for thorough handwashing by hospital staff highlighted by the report.

Karen Jennings, head of health at union Unison, said: "It's not rocket science - the way to wipe out these bugs is to have cleaner hospitals and if you want cleaner hospitals, you must have more cleaners."

The largest number of C difficile cases reported between April 2003 and March 2004 was 370 at the large Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust, which includes the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Freeman Hospital and Newcastle General Hospital.

However, in terms of the rate of C difficile cases per 1,000 bed days for patients aged over 65, the Newcastle trust's figure of 1.37 makes the Tyneside trust pretty average for England.

This is true for all North-East and North Yorkshire hospital trusts.

The trust with the highest regional rate of C difficile reports is the South Tyneside trust in South Shields with 2.19 per 1,000 bed days.

The trust with the lowest rate in the region is Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare, with 0.70 per 1,000 bed days.

Nationally, the trust with the highest rate of cases was the George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust, in the West Midlands, which saw 342 cases - a rate of 4.05 cases per 1,000 bed days.