On Tuesday, scientists stressed that patients who undergo treatments at more than one European hospital should be screened for the antibiotic resistant superbug, known as MRSA, to help curb its spread.

Dutch researchers, who closely studied and analyzed Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureu, which is responsible for causing difficult-to-treat problems like blood poisoning and pneumonia, discovered that it mostly occurred in "geographical clusters across Europe and was not spreading freely".

With this finding, researchers say, it seems that it was passed on by patients who were continually admitted to different hospitals across Europe, and this can, thus, be stopped with proper control and screening methods in place.

"Our study suggests that screening patients who have recently been in another hospital or healthcare institution would be very wise", said Hajo Grundmann, lead researcher of the study, of the University Medical Center in Groningen, the Netherlands.

Details of the study have been published in the journal Public Library of Science Medicine.