Bacteria-hit Tembisa Hospital to treat coronavirus patients

Tembisa Hospital has been indentified as one of three hospitals equipped with measures to treat victims of a possible outbreak of the coronavirus, if it were to make its way to South Africa.

This is the same hospital at the centre of a backlash just last week after 10 babies died in its neonatal ward between November and December last year due to a carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae (CRE) outbreak.

Carbapenems are a class of highly effective antibiotics, usually used to treat severe or high-risk bacterial infections, and are usually reserved as a last line of defence for multidrug-resistant bacterial infections.

ALSO READ: Tembisa Hospital where 10 babies died ‘not appropriately resourced’

The CRE-bugs are those which have developed a resistance to this last line of defence.

The Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union (YNITU), who claimed hospital staff were aware of rampant infant deaths at the hospital, also chimed in, saying the hospital was well aware of the problems with infection control and staff shortages.

The hospital caters for the densely populated Tembisa, as well as Diepsloot, which houses 350,000 citizens who don’t have their own hospital close by.

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