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No new klebsiella infections
13/06/2005 21:42 - (SA)
Durban - No new klebsiella bacteria infections had been reported by the Mahatma Gandhi hospital in Durban, following a recent outbreak in which 14 babies died, the KwaZulu-Natal health department said on Monday.
The department's spokesperson Lindiwe Khuzwayo said: "Blood cultures taken from the 14 babies who have died tested positive for klebsiella. "A temporary nursery has been set up in a cubicle in the labour ward to house neonates."
Khuzwayo said preliminary investigations reveal that the outbreak could have been caused by babies being infected before entering the facility, mothers who came into the nursery to breast feed their babies, staff who attend to patients and/or nosocomial infections (hospital-acquired infection).
Earlier this year four babies died in a klebsiella outbreak at the RK Khan hospital.
Meanwhile the parents of baby Amish, one of the babies who survived the outbreak, said he was doing "much better" after they moved him to a private hospital last week.
His mother Aziza Sayed said on Monday said his jaundice levels had dropped considerably, but he was still infected with klebsiella.
"He will undergo another test in three days time and then we will see what happens."
Sayed resumed breast feeding on Monday after a break of more than a week.
"He's so little and he's on so many antibiotics," she said.
Sayed threatened legal action against the hospital if Amish suffered any lasting medical problems or brain damage.
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