The BBC reports that more hospital patients in England are getting the deadly Clostridium difficile bug, according to new figures.
Health Protection Agency (HPA) data showed 55,681 cases were reported among over 65s in 2006 - up 8% in a year.
MRSA cases continued their downward trend, but they are not falling quickly enough to meet next year's target.
The HPA said C. difficile rates were "very high" and the Patients Association called for more to be done to protect patients from bugs.
Patients Association spokeswoman Katherine Murphy said: "Too many people are dying from these infections. We must learn from other countries such as Holland which have got infection rates close to zero.
"That is what we should be aiming for. We need to make NHS chief executives more accountable and ring-fence infection control budgets as it is to easy to raid them when there are cuts."
She also said all patients should be screened - at the moment only those at highest risk are routinely tested as they enter hospital.
The HPA does not look at deaths although figures from 2004 show that MRSA was mentioned on over 1,000 death certificates in England and Wales, while C difficile was listed on over 2,000.
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