1 hospital tied to 4 infections

Four patients have acquired bacterial infections following surgery in the same hospital in Jiangsu province during the past two months, and the local health department is trying to find the cause.

The patients - two in the obstetrics department, one in the gynecology department and one in the family planning department - were infected at Wuxi Maternal and Child Health Hospital in Jiangsu province, news website ThePaper.cn reported on Monday.

The four cases all occurred within the last two months.

An official at the hospital said that only one patient, a 30-year-old woman who died four days after receiving cervical surgery, was diagnosed as infected while she was in the hospital.

Her death was caused by clostridium welchii - a bacterium commonly found in soil, water, dust and sewage.

Another patient, who is currently being treated in the intensive-care unit at another hospital in Wuxi, was found to be infected two weeks after giving birth. The cause was a kind of spherical bacterium that can live in the human throat, vagina or on the skin.

In the hospital's obstetrics department, a woman suffered a pulmonary embolism resulting from infection by e-coli - which lives in human intestines or some animals.

The hospital official did not provide information in the news report about the fourth patient or how they might have been infected. But she said that two of the patients had poor immune function after surgery. The other two were found to have some "potential factors" before their surgeries that may be related to the bacterial infections.

Whether there is an "outbreak" of infections within the hospital is still under investigation, Li Minggang, an official of the Wuxi Health Commission, told ThePaper.cn.

According to Li, one patient was infected sometime between 48 hours before entering the hospital and 48 hours after discharge, and will be classified as "infections within hospital".

He said whether the other three patients were also infected within the hospital is being investigated. He also said that the Wuxi Center for Disease Control and Prevention had conducted an inspection of the hospital's surgical equipment and products last month. All equipment and related products met sterilization standards, he said.

Xiao Yonghong, an expert in antibiotic drug research at Peking University, said that if the infections had come from the same bacteria and happened at the same inpatient ward, the case would be defined as an "infection outbreak".

According to the National Health Commission, a hospital with an infection outbreak must complete a rectification or reform process. In some cases, surgery will not be permitted until after the process is finished.

Xiao also said clostridium welchii is a bacterium rarely seen in the human body. It can cause severe infections that are difficult to treat.

"Any bacterial infection is easier for people with poor immunity to get. The causes of these infections should be confirmed as soon as possible to guide sterilization procedures within the hospital," Xiao said.