Outbreak of deadly germs at Tembisa Hospital causes death of ten babies

The Gauteng department of health (GDH) has confirmed that there has been an outbreak of carbapenem-resistant enterobacterales (CRE) – a family of germs which can cause infections such as pneumonia and meningitis – at Tembisa hospital.

According to a statement from the department, 17 cases of CRE found in patients’ blood have occurred between November and the end of December 2019, and resulted in the death of ten babies.

This came out at a stakeholders’ meeting at the hospital on 6 January, the statement says. This was held “to discuss challenges of overcrowding in the ward, staff shortage, infrastructure, inappropriate equipment storage and difficult in isolating infected infants”.

The Tembisa Hospital Services Directorate, the Tshwane District Microbiology team and National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) were present at the meeting.

The hospital has taken measures including a “quality improvement plan”, the deployment of additional nurses, the granting “in principle” of approval to divert new admissions to Kalafong Hospital and Steve Biko Academic Hospital, the conduction of an infection prevention and control audit, and for the NICD to allocate resources to develop a dashboard to monitor laboratory-confirmed neonatal infections at facility level.

“Tembisa Hospital like many other health facilities in the province is faced with the challenge of ever-increasing demand for services. The 44-bedded Neonatal Unit often admits close to 90 patients. Whilst the department is looking at improving the hospital infrastructure it is doing its utmost best to serve patients with respect and dignity.

“The department remains committed to improving patients’ experience of care and the delivery of quality healthcare services,” the statement concludes.

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman)

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