Rotterdam hospital fails to isolate superbug (Radio Netherlands Worldwide, July 12 2011)

[Giuseppe]

[Source: Radio Netherlands Worldwide, full text: (LINK).]

Rotterdam hospital fails to isolate superbug



‎12 July ‎2011 | News Desk


Around 1,800 people may be infected with a superbug after Maasstad Hospital in Rotterdam failed to quarantine a patient carrying a multi-resistant bacteria for seven weeks.

The patient was allowed to roam freely for seven weeks in the hospital before precautionary measures were taken. As such, the hospital neglected basic rules to prevent the spread of infections.
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[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Rotterdam hospital fails to isolate superbug (Radio Netherlands Worldwide, July 12 2011)

New superbug deaths in Rotterdam hospital

Published on 20 July 2011

Four patients in the Maasstad Hospital in Rotterdam are revealed to have died after contracting the multiple resistant bacteria which the hospital has been battling since September last year.

The bacteria is an oxa-48 producing Klebsiella pneumoniae. Oxa-48 is the name of the enzyme which makes the bacteria resistant against practically all antibiotics.

So far, 70 patients have been infected, 25 of whom have since died. One of these patients had been admitted to the burns centre, where the bacteria had not been diagnosed before.

The burns centre at the Maasstad hospital is one of only three in the Netherlands. After lung damage caused by inhalation of smoke and soot, bacterial infections are the main cause of death among burn patients. It is not yet clear whether only one patient was infected.

A commission led by Professor Evert de Jonge of Leiden University has launched an investigation into the files of all deceased patients to determine to what extent the bacteria was responsible for their deaths.

The recent deaths are proof that a series of measures taken over the past few weeks to bring the outbreak under control have failed.

The Maasstad Hospital initially kept quiet about the Klebsiella pneumoniae infection and allegedly did not take adequate measures to address the situation until after the health inspectorate forced it to do so following revelations by public broadcaster NOS.

The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment has sent experts to assist the Maasstad Hospital doctors.

Radio Netherlands Worldwide

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Rotterdam hospital fails to isolate superbug (Radio Netherlands Worldwide, July 12 2011)

`Rotterdam superbug is an ESBL bacteria, source is chicken industry`

Head ICU Rotterdam hospital: the superbug is an ESBL-bacteria strain, source is the chicken industry . This is a new strain, never found in Rotterdam before.

Some 20% to 30% of Rotterdam inhabitants are a-symptomatic carriers of some kind of ESBL bacteria strain. These bacteria can be activated after the use of a catheter .

ESBL´s can be found in 50% of the ICU´s all over the country.

UITLEG DR.GROOTENDORST, HOOFD IC MAASSTAD ZIEKENHUIS

Submitted by lodewijkjes on 21 juli, 2011

De klebsiella pneumonia bacterie is een nieuwe stam van deze vorm. Was nog nooit eerder in Nederland aangetroffen. De bron van de bacterie is de kippenindustrie. Het is een EBSL bacterie, met een “loszittend” stukje DNA. Dat losse deel is overdraagbaar op andere soorten bacterie. De bacterie is resistent tegen vele anti-biotica, maar niet tegen alle soorten anti-biotica.

De EBSL bacterie komt voor bij 20-30% van de bevolking van Rotterdam in de ontlasting. De bacterie wordt pas actief bij aanbrengen van catheters en dergelijke.

Bij 50% van de IC’s in Nederland zul je de EBSL bacterie aantreffen.

medicalfacts

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Rotterdam hospital fails to isolate superbug (Radio Netherlands Worldwide, July 12 2011)

Hospital staff were sloppy and quarreling


Regarding the Klebsiella OXA-48 outbreak in Rotterdam, I'd like to add some background, summarised from Dutch news sources:

You can't prevent outbreaks like that for a 100% .

However you can prevent further spread, once you discover the bacteria. Here this hospital failed.

A handfull of patients - max - would have been "normal" . Now we have seen dozens of patients. That is impossible here in Holland. Normally.

They did not do their job, the people were sloppy and they were quarreling. Also they lied about what happened.

Only after a patient was transferred to another hospital, in Amsterdam more action was taken. The microbiologist in Amsterdam found the bacteria fast and gave a warning. Nothing special with that I was told, just standard procedure, just basics.

This could and should have been done in the Rotterdam hospital, along with other measures.

Regarding the number of deaths: it is hard to proof what caused their death.

ICU-patients are in ICU for a reason. They can die from that reason. However they are extra vulnerable, so another infection that was not cured did not help them...

Edit: in Dublin, Ireland a similar outbreak - OXA48 - but a different outcome : http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=170950

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[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Rotterdam hospital fails to isolate superbug (Radio Netherlands Worldwide, July 12 2011)

How could new bacterium appear in Dutch hospital?

English.news.cn 2011-07-28

By Christien van den Brink

THE HAGUE, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The Maasstad hospital in Rotterdam has been in the news since June this year after the outbreak of an antibiotic bacterium named Klebsiella Oxa-48 that has likely caused the death of 78 people since June.

Question arises on how this new bacterium could appear in the Netherlands.

Normally hospitals take their own responsibility in taking the necessary precautions to stop the spread of these hospital bacteria.

But this is not the case for Maasstad hospital in Rotterdam. In the beginning the Health Care Inspection (IGZ) was fully confident that the board of the hospital could combat the bacteria, but after a few unannounced edits this confidence was declaimed.

The hospital was put under intensified supervision for a period of two months in order to make sure that the right infection control measures were taken.

In addition, an independent supervisor was appointed to combat the bacteria.

"The hospital needs to arrange a better cooperation between the physician and the infection control microbiologists as quickly as possible," IGZ told Xinhua.

When a contamination is detected, the doctor-microbiologist needs to be the co-treatment officer in cooperation with the regular doctor, IGZsaid, adding "We have seen that the microbiologist is not always involved in the treatment of the contaminated patients."

IGZ had ordered the hospital to appoint an external supervisor who will have the final responsibility over the hygiene.

How the bacteria could spread in the hospital? "Either the hospital hasn't followed the right quarantine procedures when a patient was brought in from abroad or the hygiene in the hospital was below requirements," said a spokesperson for IGZ, stressing further research needs to be done.

Read more - Xinhua