An “overhaul of MRSA” in Denmark has been initiated by the country’s environment and food minister, Eva Kjer Hansen, following criticism of her department’s previous efforts.
Denmark’s National Audit Office embarked on a “comprehensive study” of the food ministry’s action against livestock-MRSA in autumn 2014, recently reaching the conclusion that the approach which had been taken was “not satisfactory”.
As a result, Ms Hansen (pictured above) has stated that the situation needs to be rectified.
“I have therefore launched an overhaul of how my ministry manages the ordering, handling and dissemination of future (MRSA) research,” she said, adding that her ministry “must constantly focus on cooperation with other ministries”, as all need to contribute to the holistic analysis of MRSA.
Acknowledging that there will be cases of “MRSA, salmonella or something else” in the future, she added that such health risks required “rapid political action”, alongside a detailed health and economic analysis of the whole situation.
The audit office report had earlier stated that the presence of livestock-MRSA in animals and humans in Denmark had “increased substantially since 2010”, adding that both the food ministry and the health ministry should have investigated the health and economic costs of livestock animal-MRSA.
