Superbugs linked to premature baby deaths

www.grub4life.com today reports that babies at a world leading neonatal unit have been found with serious superbugs that are reistant to common antibiotics and three have died, it has emerged. 02-09-2010

Doctors at University College Hospital last month found bacteria on the unit that were resistant to antibiotics commonly used to treat infections in very premature babies.
 
Over six weeks 15 babies were found to be carrying several types of bacteria, 13 of which had bugs resistant to treatment with gentamicin.
 
Of those nine carried the resistant bacteria on their skin and four had bloodstream infections.
 
Records of a meeting, passed to the Daily Telegraph, show one baby died from its infection and two others died with the bugs but it is not thought to have been the primary cause of death.

A spokesman for University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said:

"Development of antibiotic resistance is unfortunately a common occurence for all neonatal units, even more so in units such as ours which care for the most premature babies.  During July we became concerned because we found particular bacteria on routine surveillance (gentamicin resistant gram negative organisims). We responded accordingly, including increased cleaning and changing our routine antibiotics to those which we knew would kill these organisms."
 
With thanks to www.telegraph.co.uk
  
To read the full story go to:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7967998/Superbugs-linked-to-premature-baby-deaths.html