There are also fears that the antibiotic-resistant bacterium - vancomycin resistant enterococcus, or VRE - may have travelled with one baby to another hospital in Melbourne. This hospital has not yet been identified.
The head of infection control for Monash Health, Dr Rhonda Stuart, said 21 babies at the Monash Medical Centre and Casey Hospital special care and intensive care units had tested positive for VRE in recent weeks.
VRE is a bacterium that can colonise the gut and remain harmless for healthy people. However, it can cause serious infections in people with weakened immune systems, particularly cancer, transplant and kidney dialysis patients.
As its name suggests, VRE is resistant to vancomycin, an anti-biotic that is used to treat serious infections.
Dr Stuart said so far none of the 21 babies had fallen ill because the bacteria appeared to have colonised their guts without causing an infection. However, she said there was a risk the bacterium could become a difficult-to-treat infection for the babies if it got into their bloodstreams.
''If the bacteria get into the baby through a tube or if they are being fed intravenously, potentially they could develop an infection that way, but with strict hand hygiene and good environmental control we don't expect that to happen,'' she said.
Dr Stuart said that although VRE had been increasingly found in Victorian hospitals this year, with most detecting several cases a week, it was the first time Monash Health had discovered it in its newborn wards.
She said Monash Health - Victoria's largest health service - was working hard to contain and eliminate the superbug.
Staff working with the babies are wearing gowns and gloves and washing their hands thoroughly. Babies coming into the wards will not be exposed to babies potentially carrying the organism and each nursery bay is being isolated for disinfection as babies are discharged.
The service has also begun ''precautionary screening'' at Dandenong Hospital's nursery and said it was limiting the transfer of babies between Monash Health sites and other health services.
However, Dr Stuart said that before the service detected the first case of VRE in an infant, it had transferred one baby to another hospital's special care nursery. While it is still unknown if this baby is carrying VRE, she said the hospital had been notified on Monday so it could test the baby and take infection-control measures if necessary. She was not willing to name the hospital in case there was no risk and it would alarm the public unnecessarily.
Source: http://www.sott.net/article/269205-The-end-of-antibiotics-Superbug-strikes-babies-in-hospitals
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