Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/24/content_12313914.htm
Auckland's major hospital reports outbreak of superbug
www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-24 12:13:06
WELLINGTON, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- A superbug outbreak at a major hospital in Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city, has become so serious that officials are considering splitting wards in an effort to control it, local media reported Saturday.
Up to one in five patients at Auckland's North Shore Hospital are contracting extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL), about 70 percent of them while in hospital, Radio New Zealand reported on Saturday.
Patients at the Hospital are divided between three rooms, one for those that test positive for the superbug, another for those waiting for results and a third for those that have been cleared.
At the peak of the outbreak in April, 245 patients in North Shore Hospital and Waitakere Hospital caught ESBL -- producing bacteria -- is resistant to a range of antibiotic drugs.
Five elderly patients who had the superbug and also other illnesses, died in the nine months to April.
Improved hygiene measures reduced the number of infections to 162 in August.
North Shore hospital Chief Medical Officer Johan Rosman said ESBL was different from other superbugs because it stayed in people 's bodies for a long time, even after they had been treated with antibiotics.
He said it was important to wash hands and use hand gels often, to optimize hygiene.
In the meantime the hospital is to ask Waitemata District Health Board to consider splitting medical and surgical wards to ensure patients with the bug have separate staff from those that don't.
The superbug is usually carried in the bowel but if it crosses into the bloodstream it can be fatal.
Auckland's major hospital reports outbreak of superbug
www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-24 12:13:06
WELLINGTON, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- A superbug outbreak at a major hospital in Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city, has become so serious that officials are considering splitting wards in an effort to control it, local media reported Saturday.
Up to one in five patients at Auckland's North Shore Hospital are contracting extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL), about 70 percent of them while in hospital, Radio New Zealand reported on Saturday.
Patients at the Hospital are divided between three rooms, one for those that test positive for the superbug, another for those waiting for results and a third for those that have been cleared.
At the peak of the outbreak in April, 245 patients in North Shore Hospital and Waitakere Hospital caught ESBL -- producing bacteria -- is resistant to a range of antibiotic drugs.
Five elderly patients who had the superbug and also other illnesses, died in the nine months to April.
Improved hygiene measures reduced the number of infections to 162 in August.
North Shore hospital Chief Medical Officer Johan Rosman said ESBL was different from other superbugs because it stayed in people 's bodies for a long time, even after they had been treated with antibiotics.
He said it was important to wash hands and use hand gels often, to optimize hygiene.
In the meantime the hospital is to ask Waitemata District Health Board to consider splitting medical and surgical wards to ensure patients with the bug have separate staff from those that don't.
The superbug is usually carried in the bowel but if it crosses into the bloodstream it can be fatal.
