Newborns need to be kept in isolation because of bacterial infection in hospital

Stavanger.Infant dies of infection..Photo: Carina Johansen / NTB scanpix

Eight infants need to be kept under isolation at Stavanger University Hospital over the summer after a newborn boy died after being infected with an intestinal bacterium.

– Everybody that were colonised by the bacteria are premature, so they will remain in solitary confinement at our hospital for two or three months. So this we’re going to be working on finding a solution to this throughout the summer,  infection control consultant Jon Sundal at Stavanger University Hospital says to the newspaper VG.

A newborn boy died Friday after being infected by the intestinal bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae, which led to blood poisoning.
Eight premature infants are now kept under isolation in the hospital. Five of these have been got the dangerous bacteria in the gut, but have not yet become ill,  the hospital said.
The source of the outbreak of intestinal bacteria has not been found,  the newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad reports.

The bacterium was located in several places in the delivery ward before being washed down, in places and ways including sinks and rinsing, said Sundal.
– It is possible that the source of the outbreak  never will be found. But we hope that it will burn itself out, given that the kids now are kept under isolation and will be sent home when they are healthy,  the infection control consultant says to the newspaper.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today