Sloppy medical procedures at LA hospital caused fatal bacterial outbreak

Email this article to a friend

Printable Version

Articles Related to This Article: • New Study Shows Need for a Major Overhaul of How United States Manages Chronic Illness (press release) • Hospitals Are a Major Health Hazard • Hospital Nutrition Mirrors an Unhealthy Lifestyle, and Now an Unhealthy Economy Support NaturalNews advertisers - Advertise with NaturalNews Help support NaturalNews with health books and educational programs from Truth Publishing: • Swine Flu Advanced Preparedness • 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health • Raw In Ten Minutes (recipes) • How to Halt Diabetes in 25 Days ... and much more.

(NaturalNews) A bacterial outbreak that killed two infants at a Los Angeles hospital was caused by a failure to properly sterilize surgical instruments, according to a report by inspectors from the California Department of Health Services.

On December 4, White Memorial Medical Center closed its neonatal intensive care unit for two weeks after five infants contracted Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections. The deaths of two of the children have been attributed to the infection.

The hospital also temporarily closed its pediatrics intensive care unit, where two older children tested positive for the same bacteria. However, hospital officials determined that those children had not been infected by the same strain as the infants, and the pediatric ward soon reopened.

California health inspectors released their report on January 23, concluding that the bacterial outbreak stemmed from hospital workers' improper sterilization of the laryngoscope blades used in the insertion of breathing tubes. Rather than following official sterilization procedure, the respiratory therapy staff had washed the blades with soap, tap water and alcohol wipes.

White Memorial has said that state's report "simply confirms the hospital's preliminary findings." The hospital said that since the outbreak it has been working closely with experts and public officials, and that no new infections have been reported.

P. aeruginosa is a common pathogen with a tendency to attack those with compromised immune systems. Because the bacteria is naturally resistant to wide variety of antibiotics, such infections can be particularly dangerous. Of the seven families of antibiotics known to function against P. aeruginosa, six must be administered by injection. This has led many hospitals to limit their use of the seventh family, the fluoroquinolones (which includes ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin), for fear of encouraging the evolution of a fluoroquinolone-resistant strain of the disease.

P. aeruginosa is responsible for approximately 10 percent of hospital-acquired infections.

###

Get articles like this delivered to you FREE in our popular email newsletter

Related CounterThink Cartoons:

Related Articles: • New Study Shows Need for a Major Overhaul of How United States Manages Chronic Illness (press release) • Hospitals Are a Major Health Hazard • Hospital Nutrition Mirrors an Unhealthy Lifestyle, and Now an Unhealthy Economy	Take Action: Support NaturalNews.com Email this article to a friend Share this article on: NewsVine | digg | del.icio.us Permalink to this article: http://www.NaturalNews.com/021524_hospital_bacteria_sterilization.html Reprinting this article: Non-commercial use OK, cite NaturalNews.com with clickable link. Embed article link: (copy HTML code below): <a href = "http://www.NaturalNews.com/021524_hospital_bacteria_sterilization.html">Sloppy medical procedures at LA hospital caused fatal bacterial outbreak</a>