Infection led to two deaths

Press, 29 June 1987, Page 6

Infection led to two deaths

PA Dunedin The hospital infection M.R.S.A. contributed to the death of two patients in New Zealand, a study of the outbreak says. Infection with methicil-lin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (M.R.S.A.) was rife in some Australian hospitals, and led to deaths and high costs recently. The study of the illness in this country, published in the latest “New Zea-

land Medical Journal,” looks at the outbreak at Wellington Hospital from March, 1985, to July, 1986, and traces its course. It recommends that all patients admitted directly from overseas hospitals be nursed in single cubicles until shown to be free of M.R.S.A. It also says all new appointees from overseas should have to be swabbed. “The benefit of preventing introduction of MRSA

cannot be overstressed.” The study is by Dr Mark Jones, a clinical microbiologist at Wellington Hospital, and Dr Diana Martin of the National Health Institute in Porirua. During the Wellington outbreak, four nurses and 30 patients became, infected or colonised. The infection began in the intensive care unit but spread to 14 hospital wards and five other New Zealand hospitals.

It is believed the infection may have come from a nurse from Australia. The first case was in Auckland in 1975 and in 1976 a Wellington case was reported.

There have been ocassional cases, but the Wellington outbreak was the first of “significance.” Although the outbreak was eventually controlled, the study says it is possible some staff carriers remain undetected.