The Health Service Executive has said it will ask all Irish hospitals to publish data on the prevalence of the potentially fatal superbug MRSA on a regular basis.
The HSE said hand washing was the single most effective way to prevent the spread of the bug and that new guidelines for hospitals on combating hospital-acquired infection will be published next month.
Details of the scale of the problem were revealed in The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Irish Patients' Association has backed calls for the publication of such information following the revelation that more than 6,000 cases of MRSA were detected in Ireland last year.
The Consultant Microbiologist at the Health Protection Surveillance Centre told RTÉ Radio that there were more than 550 serious cases of MRSA in 2004.
Dr Robert Cunney said there had been much progress in addressing the issue but that there is still a long way to go.
Earlier, relatives of people affected by MRSA called for continuous inspections in hospitals and for the setting up of an office to which the families of patients can make complaints.
