Bacteria fears isolate 6 babies

The Melbourne Royal Childrens Hospital has isolated six babies suspected of carrying the deadly Serratia bacteria.

The Melbourne Royal Childrens Hospital has isolated six babies suspected of carrying the deadly Serratia bacteria.This week, the Monash Medical Centre stopped admitting patients to its neo-natal intensive care unit after the death of a second infant, possibly due to the Serratia bacteria.The State Coroner will determine whether the baby’s death was a result of Serratia or complications after a major operation.The death of another baby last month at Monash is also under investigation.Infection control adviser at the hospital, Andrew Daley, says the six babies who are in the neo-natal intensive unit are not infected with the bacterium and have been isolated as a precaution.”The current situation is that we do have six babies that are carrying the bacteria called Serratia,” he said.”That is, they are colonised with this organism, it is not causing any disease or infection in those babies.”(Source: ABC Health News, April 2004)