Hospital closes units after babies get sick (CA)

[OhioChick]

POSTED: 4:02 p.m. EST, December 16, 2006

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A hospital has closed its neonatal and pediatrics intensive care units to new admissions after a potentially fatal bacterium sickened seven children, including an infant who may have died from the infection, officials said.

White Memorial Medical Center shut down the neonatal unit December 4 after an outbreak of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and both units will remain closed until they are considered safe, hospital officials said Friday.

Any critically ill babies born at the hospital are being taken to a special isolation area to be stabilized before being transferred to other hospitals, officials said.

The germ is believed to have infected five babies in the unit since it was detected November 30, said Dr. Laurene Mascola, director of the county's acute communicable disease control unit. One of the infants died, likely because of the pathogen, she said.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/12/16/bacteria.babies.ap/index.html

How sad.

[leftchick]

1. the USA is quickly becoming a third world country

how low can we go?

[Warpy]

2. This isn't unusual

and I've seen it happening since the 80s.

Whenever there's a cluster of bacterial infections in a single unit, infection control starts to investigate. Units with extremely vulnerable populations like premature newborns can be closed while the investigation takes place. Staff are swabbed to see if somebody's a carrier, equipment is cultured to see if that's the problem, even the walls are cultured.

The good news is that pseudomonas is still susceptible to a lot of antibiotics. The bad news is that those antibiotics can be very toxic to premature livers and kidneys.

If they'd kept the unit open without doing all of the above, THAT would be third world. The third world doesn't have the wherewithal to run cultures of everything and everybody. They just move the patients out for a few days while they swab everything down with bleach or other disinfectant. Then they hope.

[likesmountains 52]

3. Thank you for making sense

[silverojo]

4. Because third-world people are coming here

And thus we're seeing re-emergences of diseases that had long since been conquered in our country, from TB to leprosy (that one surprised the bejeez out of me). Before, people had to be processed before they could come in to the country, to make sure they weren't carrying diseases. Now...people are coming in unchecked, and this is one of the consequences. :(

[WindRavenX]

5. Um, no. You're 100% wrong

What we're seeing regarding the recent bacterial outbreaks at hospitals is caused by:

1) Anti-biotic resistant strains of bacteria which are finally being unable to be controlled by anti-biotics because of over-use and natural selection

2)It is not uncommon for immuno-compromised/weakened individuals (like premies or burn victims) to be extraordinarily suspect able to common bacteria and fungus.

So no, this has nothing to do with "third world" people coming here.

[Warpy]

6. Um, that's not the problem

TB and leprosy are caused by mycobacteria that live in the soil. TB is very infectious, leprosy is not. Both can be cured, but the medications must be taken consistently and for a very long period of time.

Poverty is linked to both illnesses. Homelessness and conditions within shelters aid the spread of TB, in particular. Homelessness and the lack of consistent health service mean that the drugs are taken neither consistently nor long term, and that has caused a rise in drug resistant TB. People with compromised immune systems due to HIV have astonishingly high infection rates with both leprosy and TB. They have no way to fight it off when they become exposed to either.

Xenophobia is incurable.

[leftchick]

7. no, not at all

I was referring to the fact that the USA has now decided to no longer have the health care system we could have, test the food and drugs we consume, and totally rejects all restrictions on corporations. Profits over People is the problem.

[donsu]

8. it's getting to be that if you have a hosp. stay for any reason you will

come home with an infection of some sort.