Falklands : MRSA Discovered in UK Patient at the KEMH
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 02.11.2006 (Article Archived on 16.11.2006)
A UK patient has been admitted to the KEMH with MRSA.
MRSA FOUND AT THE KEMH
A UK resident was admitted to the hospital last week for an operation on an abscess. A routine swab was taken and it was discovered that the patient had MRSA. Following routine procedures, the theatre and ward areas were deep-cleaned and tested – no MRSA was grown. All staff and patients in the ward were also tested. Three staff members were found to have MRSA and are undergoing treatment to eradicate it. Two patients with chronic problems were also found to have MRSA. Patients with chronic problems are more vulnerable to infection. One patient had been treated in the UK on several occasions and had been found to be MRSA positive in the past and recurrence is normal. The second patient had been tested previously and not found to have MRSA. However, the strain of MRSA that both patients have is different to that grown from the original patient, which suggests that the source of infection is not from the hospital. This is still under investigation.
The hospital deals with patients with MRSA on a fairly regular basis and our cleaning and testing procedures following known MRSA admissions have been shown to be very effective. All hospital staff are routinely tested for MRSA on appointment, and all patients who return from the UK and are admitted directly to hospital here are also routinely tested. We are now reviewing our procedures to see if we can tighten them up still further. By coincidence, our microbiological adviser, Matthew Dryden is due to visit later this month. Part of the purpose of his visit is to review our infection control procedures. Our approach to MRSA will form part of that review.
Nikki Osborne
Director of Health Services
2nd November 2006
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