Three children succumb to lethal bacteria

Three of five children infected by staphylococcus aureus, a lethal bacteria, have died at the emergency block of the Children’s ward of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.

The two surviving children are responding to available treatment.

Prof Afua Hesse, Director of Medical Affairs at the hospital, said on Friday it was still not clear what caused the bacteria infection as the infected children came from outside the hospital.

This was made known when the Parliamentary select committee on Health visited the ward and also interacted with the management staff of the hospital.

According to the Professor, measures had been taken to limit the spread of the infection to other children.

She noted that the ward was being fumigated to ensure that all the germs were killed as the bacteria was an environmental bug.

“There is no cause for alarm because the Out- Patient clinics are running except that we are not admitting patients at the moment.”

Prof Hesse said postmortem would be carried out to ascertain the cause, adding that “this particular infection does not respond to any anti-biotic”.

Prof Nii Out Nartey, CEO of the hospital, said a new emergency centre for children is to be constructed soon, adding that the National Health Insurance Scheme had given GH1.5 million for the project scheduled to start in three month.

He said the emergency block could cater for only 15 patients but now the number had increased to about 50 that called for a new centre.

Rev. Prof Andrews Seth Ayettey, Board Chairman of the hospital, said research was not keeping pace with the disease’s resistance, saying since 1948 that anti-biotics were developed, there had not been any research into the causes of new infections and the type of anti-biotic treatment to be used.

Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka-Mubarak, Member of Parliament for Asawase and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee, said the issue had been a worry to members of Parliament hence the visit for first hand information.

Source: GNA