Fed: Medical expert says hospitals cope with superbug risk daily

AAP General News (Australia)
12-14-2001
Fed: Medical expert says hospitals cope with superbug risk daily

CANBERRA, Dec 14 AAP - Hospitals dealt with the risk of transferring patients with
superbugs every day, a medical expert said today after an infection closed down the intensive
care unit of an Adelaide hospital.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital officials found the antibiotic-resistant pseudomonas bacteria
in routine screening of a patient transferred to Adelaide from Sydney's St George Hospital
on November 29.

Testing discovered the infection in two other patients, one of whom died on December
4, although the precise cause of death was yet to be determined.

The patient had been in hospital in Sydney for more than five months with a stomach
tumour and was transferred on compassionate grounds because her family lived in Adelaide.

Associate Professor John Turnidge, director of microbiology and infectious diseases
at Adelaide's Women's and Children's Hospital, said hospitals coped with that kind of
situation every day.

"It's a risk we take every day. There are people carrying resistant bugs, particularly
in hospitals, and they need to be transferred from one hospital to another for a variety
of reasons," he told ABC radio.

"Provided we know that ahead of time, we make every effort to corral the bug and make
sure it doesn't go to other patients.

"I'm sure the Queen Elizabeth did exactly that. This one just happened to outsmart
them on this occasion."

Prof Turnidge said the pseudomonas bacteria thrived in wet, moist places and was not
a risk to healthy people, but could easily infect those with weak immune systems.

AAP kmh/las

KEYWORD: SUPERBUG TURNIDGE

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