MRSA infections ‘at record low’

I understand that every person affected by the superbug MRSA will want to be counted, but how can anyone be soooo precise with the latest UK figures for those afflicted with what is now known as Multiple-Resistant Staph A? Just check out the BBC’s item on this: BBC NEWS | Health | MRSA infections ‘at record low’. “From April to September 2004, 3,519 NHS patients,” they say, compared with 3,598 between April and September 2001. Now, any statistician will tell you that those two figures are “the same”. For both read “between 3500 and 2600 give or take a margin of error.” That margin of error, what might it be? One or two cases? A dozen? A hundred? Many people will have had multiple infections and many may have had MRSA but been missed or misdiagnosed, so who knows? Suffice to say that the figures have not changed significantly between the two periods.