:00:00. > :00:10.comment on the latest video from Islamic State. Now though,
:00:11. > :00:15.And now the news for the East Midlands. I'm Anne Davies.
:00:16. > :00:17.Good evening. First tonight, scientists in Leicester have
:00:18. > :00:21.developed a new weapon in the fight against a deadly hospital superbug.
:00:22. > :00:27.Four people a day are dying from Clostridium difficile, or C Diff.
:00:28. > :00:32.Now, as Jo Healey explains, researchers say an electronic nose
:00:33. > :00:43.will give them a huge boost in how we tackle the disease.
:00:44. > :00:49.infection while in hospital in infection while in hospital in
:00:50. > :00:51.Leicester. He says he suffered terribly.
:00:52. > :00:58.It completely wiped them out. You go from being fit and healthy to being
:00:59. > :01:02.bedridden within days, and that is really awful. His father survived,
:01:03. > :01:07.but every year in this country, more than 1500 people who are affected
:01:08. > :01:10.die. It is most associated with
:01:11. > :01:15.hospitals, and it costs the NHS millions of pounds each year, both
:01:16. > :01:20.to control and to treat, but treating it is difficult, because
:01:21. > :01:22.there are more than 450 different strains of it.
:01:23. > :01:28.So that is where this electronic nose comes in. It can analyse
:01:29. > :01:31.patients' faeces, find the bug and the variety.
:01:32. > :01:35.What we have been doing is sniffing out the bugs here. We are taking the
:01:36. > :01:40.gases that, from the bugs, and we chemically fingerprint them on this
:01:41. > :01:42.machine here. That will produce a chemical fingerprint that allows us
:01:43. > :01:46.to love that the individual chemical molecules that make up the smell.
:01:47. > :01:49.The real significance of that is, we are able to differentiate those that
:01:50. > :01:54.are infectious and those that are not infectious from the smells.
:01:55. > :01:57.At the moment, patient get the blanket treatment with antibiotics.
:01:58. > :02:00.This electronic nose and distinguished between the different
:02:01. > :02:04.strains, and therefore allow a lot more targeted treatment to be given
:02:05. > :02:07.to patients. And save lives? Yes, it would mean that the patient is not
:02:08. > :02:11.given an antibiotic that does not work.
:02:12. > :02:14.the right type of it, you can get the right type of it, you can get
:02:15. > :02:18.better success, and better survival, and that is what we would all
:02:19. > :02:22.welcome. Hospitals are working hard to reduce C Diff, but also welcomed
:02:23. > :02:24.the new research, which will help even more patients.
:02:25. > :02:28.But there have been developments tonight, with health officials
:02:29. > :02:34.warning of a new superbug heading our way. More on that in a moment,
:02:35. > :02:37.but first, hospitals have made some pretty big steps against C Diff,
:02:38. > :02:43.haven't they? Yes, in recent years, there have been big incentives for
:02:44. > :02:45.hospitals to tackle this awful diarrhoea infection. This shows the
:02:46. > :02:50.number of cases of C Diff our main number of cases of C Diff our main
:02:51. > :02:53.hospitals are allowed to have in a year. The red figures show how many
:02:54. > :02:58.they actually recorded. They say most were not due to deficiencies in
:02:59. > :03:03.care, but for every case over and above the permitted totals, where
:03:04. > :03:08.patients got the infections in hospital, the hospital could be
:03:09. > :03:13.fined ?50,000 per patient. Earlier this year, that was reduced to a
:03:14. > :03:18.penalty of ?10,000 mark but still, a big incentive to take control.
:03:19. > :03:22.Absolutely. And tell it about this new horrendous superbug? Yes, I am
:03:23. > :03:31.told they are now worried about a new group of antibiotic resistant
:03:32. > :03:34.bowel bacteria, known as CRE. It is a major public health concern. Cases
:03:35. > :03:37.are spreading in London and the north`west, and from next month,
:03:38. > :03:38.patients here will be screened for it if they are going into our
:03:39. > :03:39.hospitals. Improvements to commuter rail links
:03:40. > :03:41.between Nottingham, Newark and Lincoln have been given the go`ahead
:03:42. > :03:46.by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The upgrade of the Castle Line
:03:47. > :03:50.follows years of campaigning by local businesses and politicians.
:03:51. > :03:56.It'll cut journey times and the project could be completed
:03:57. > :03:59.by next May. Our Political Editor John Hess
:04:00. > :04:11.has the details. When it comes to rail investment,
:04:12. > :04:17.the Casa line has tended to be the bridesmaid rather than the bride. ``
:04:18. > :04:22.Castle Line. But it has found a rather unexpected suitor. These
:04:23. > :04:25.lines up overcrowded, infrequent, and doesn't go fast enough, so we
:04:26. > :04:27.need a regular service to Nottingham, a direct service every
:04:28. > :04:30.hour. We want to make sure there are many
:04:31. > :04:35.more services on line between Lincoln and Newark. That is what we
:04:36. > :04:38.can deliver. It became one of those battle ground issues during the
:04:39. > :04:41.Newark parliamentary by`election. At present, the current rail service
:04:42. > :04:44.stops in many villages along the route. It is slow, and then take
:04:45. > :04:50.more than an hour from Lincoln to Nottingham. The investment, costing
:04:51. > :04:53.almost one in the pounds, will double the number of direct
:04:54. > :04:57.services, especially between Newark and Nottingham, cutting journey
:04:58. > :05:00.times by anything between 15 and 20 minutes. No doubt, much to the
:05:01. > :05:05.relief of regular passengers. I think it would be nice, because we
:05:06. > :05:10.get really rough trains on this line. Most of it is just standing in
:05:11. > :05:15.one place, so yes, it is badly needed.
:05:16. > :05:19.I started at the University of Nottingham in September. And using a
:05:20. > :05:23.fairly regularly, and the quicker and more often the trains are, the
:05:24. > :05:25.better. I think it is very badly needed.
:05:26. > :05:30.A lot of people go through nothing in Lincoln, and they are some of the
:05:31. > :05:35.main centres. You will get a seat for a start, so that is a plus.
:05:36. > :05:39.Paying the fare to have to stand isn't really acceptable.
:05:40. > :05:42.This is a line where you can travel faster along it in 1909 than you can
:05:43. > :05:47.today. I think it will bring thousands of jobs to the area, and
:05:48. > :05:51.it will help anyone who commutes, who goes to college, who wants to go
:05:52. > :05:55.shopping in any of the towns or villages in this area. It will be a
:05:56. > :05:58.massive benefit. Of course, the cash being spent on a just do is a lot of
:05:59. > :06:03.money, and Nottinghamshire itself does benefit from that, but this is
:06:04. > :06:07.a huge step forward for the area. After several weeks of negotiations
:06:08. > :06:09.with East Midlands Trains and local councils, I understand that the
:06:10. > :06:10.Department for Transport will make a formal announcement in the next week
:06:11. > :06:13.or so. Sport, and one football result
:06:14. > :06:17.tonight. It was a local derby between Notts County and Mansfield
:06:18. > :06:21.Town in the first round of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, with The
:06:22. > :06:27.Magpies winning 2`0. That's your news. So, it's goodbye
:06:28. > :06:38.from me, but with your weather now, Thank you. Fairly quiet with the
:06:39. > :06:43.weather at the moment. Drive, mostly cloudy, and rather warm as the theme
:06:44. > :06:47.for the next couple of days, but it is dependent on how much sunshine we
:06:48. > :06:51.get. Where we get ploughed, we're looking at a bit as not to 17 or 18
:06:52. > :06:56.degrees, but in the sun, they will be rocketing around 22 or 23
:06:57. > :06:59.Celsius. We have a fair amount of cloud at the moment, and that cloud
:07:00. > :07:03.will actually thinking through the night, so we could get a mist and
:07:04. > :07:06.hill fog across the Peak District later on in the night, but it will
:07:07. > :07:10.be a warm one. Temperature is not falling much lower than around 14 or
:07:11. > :07:15.15 degrees, so a warm nights to come. Tomorrow morning, we start off
:07:16. > :07:19.with quite a lot of cloud, so a murky start, mist around here and
:07:20. > :07:22.there as well. Slowly but surely, the cloud will thin and break into
:07:23. > :07:24.the afternoon, so we will thin and break into the afternoon, so we
:07:25. > :07:27.were, mist around here and there as well. Slowly but surely, the cloud
:07:28. > :07:30.will thin and break into the afternoon, so we were getting
:07:31. > :07:35.brighter days of sunshine coming through it the next few days.
:07:36. > :07:42.Good evening. Thankfully over the next few days temperatures are not
:07:43. > :07:45.that likely to be too close to the 14 degrees we saw across North West
:07:46. > :07:51.Scotland today under grey and gloomy skies. But more akin to the 23
:07:52. > :07:54.degrees we saw in Northolt under fairly sunny conditions. Over the
:07:55. > :07:58.next few days we have a south-easterly drift that. Pushes
:07:59. > :08:04.away the cloud we've seen across Scotland and Northern Ireland a bit.
:08:05. > :08:07.But we have cloud heading our way. It's not clear blue skies by any
:08:08. > :08:10.means. Tonight, it won't be clear skies everywhere. We will see a bit
:08:11. > :08:14.more cloud develop across central and eastern parts of England.
:08:15. > :08:16.Turning misty in a few spots. That cloud across western Scotland and
:08:17. > :08:20.Northern Ireland and in between, where we see the clearer skies, even
:08:21. > :08:24.a few mist and fog patches here and there. Dropping temperatures in the
:08:25. > :08:28.countryside, but for most, a milder start to the morning compared with
:08:29. > :08:29.this morning. Still the cloud across northern and western Scotland,