![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/baby.jpg\" "\\"baby\\"")
Eight babies have tested positive and two of them have died as a result of an infection in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH), the Public Hospitals Authority announced.<\/p>\nEight babies have tested positive and two of them have died as a result of an infection in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH), the Public Hospitals Authority announced.<\/p>\n
The bacterium is known as Acinetobacter Baumannii.<\/p>\n
All babies in the unit have been tested for the infection, the PHA said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe infection is now contained and measures are in place to prevent further infections,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe remaining six babies who tested positive for Acinetobacter are well and are on antibiotic treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acinetobacter Baumannii bacteria are known to occur in hospitals worldwide where infants have immature immune systems or not fully developed immune systems due to prematurity, the PHA said.<\/p>\n
Minister of Health Dr. Perry Gomez admitted yesterday that more could have been done faster to address this problem.<\/p>\n
Asked whether he thought the outbreak was properly handled, Gomez said, \u201cNo, I\u2019m not because the ministry should have been notified a long time ago by the institution (PMH).\u201d<\/p>\n
Gomez said the first case was detected three to four weeks ago.<\/p>\n
Free National Movement Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis, who is a former minister of health, asked questions in the House of Assembly about the outbreak on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Minnis said yesterday it is obvious his questions triggered the release of the PHA statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy concern is why were they keeping this away from the public,\u201d he said, adding that he learnt of the matter \u201cabout a week or two ago\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy obvious concern is the babies. Why did they wait so long to inform the public? What are they hiding?\u201d<\/p>\n
But Gomez said the report into the investigation was received after Parliament met, which is why the press statement was only sent yesterday.<\/p>\n
He denied that it had anything to do with Minnis raising the questions in the House of Assembly on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Gomez said the Acinetobacter scare is not over yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last case was about a week ago,\u201d he said. \u201cThe patient is doing well but it takes a while before you can say it\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n
An Acinetobacter outbreak hit the special care baby unit at PMH in 1996, causing widespread concern.<\/p>\n
A report on that outbreak from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explained that Acinetobacter are multi-drug-resistant bacteria that grow well in water and cause infections with unexplained, increased summer prevalence.<\/p>\n
In August 1996, eight infants acquired Acinetobacter bloodstream infection while at PMH. Three infants died and an investigation was initiated, noted the report.<\/p>\n
It said Acinetobacter may cause infection and death among infants during periods of polyclonal airborne dissemination; breaks in aseptic technique during i.v. medication administration may facilitate transmission from the environment to the patient, the report said.<\/p>\n
Environmental conditions that increase air conditioner condensation may increase the risk of infection, the report noted.<\/p>\n
Candia Dames
\nThe Nassau Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two babies died as a result of an infection in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH). Eight babies tested positive for the infection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[19,335],"class_list":["post-24173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-health","tag-hospital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}