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Blood infection traced to ER

40 affected by outbreak at Seven Oaks

By: Aldo Santin

12/12/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 9

A bloodstream infection has affected 40 patients at Seven Oaks General Hospital -- including two who have died.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority issued a news release late Friday afternoon, describing the situation at Seven Oaks as an outbreak in the emergency ward and asking anyone treated with intravenous medication and suffering flu-like symptoms to contact their physician.

Dr. John Embil, the WRHA medical director of infection, prevention and control, said the symptoms of the infection are fever and chills. It can be fatal, he said, but is treatable with antibiotics.

"It can be fatal but with rapid initiation of antibiotic therapy you can avoid the most dire complication, which is death," Embil said.

Embil said his department became aware of the outbreak at the end of the summer when staff found a number of bloodstream infections linked to an organism known as Serratia marcescens.

"It's an unusual organism and when you start seeing a number of this coming up... (it) triggers alarm bells and gets everyone in line to find out why this is happening," Embil said.

Twenty patients were infected when Embil and hospital staff began tracking the source of the infection in late summer, and another 20 people have since been identified as also having the infection.

Dr. Ricardo Lobato de Faria, the chief medical officer at Seven Oaks, said all but two of the 40 patients showed signs of the infection after they were admitted to the hospital following treatment in the emergency ward. Two others were treated in emergency and released but recalled when their blood work revealed the infection, he said.

Embil said two patients with the infection have died but added the infection was not the cause of their deaths. He said they were seriously ill when they were admitted.

Embil said officials' detective work determined that the infection originated in Seven Oaks' emergency ward but they've yet to learn what caused it in the first place.

Senior management at the WRHA were informed Thursday afternoon of the outbreak when it was determined that the infection began in the hospital emergency ward.

WRHA spokeswoman Heidi Graham said the Seven Oaks emergency ward will not be closed and the health authority is not advising the public to stay away.

Graham said it's unlikely that any former Seven Oaks patients have the bloodstream infection but she added that anyone who has been treated at the Seven Oaks emergency ward recently, received intravenous medication and has flu-like symptoms should contact their physician or Health Links.

Embil said the health authority's protocols and procedures went into play when the outbreak was detected, adding his staff will continue to work to track the cause.

"This is part of routine quality assurance and routine followup on any abnormality that's found to be of significance," Embil said. "This is basically business as usual."

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 12, 2009 B1

History

Updated on Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 4:53 PM CST:
Corrects spelling error.

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9 Commentscomment icon

Hold on a minute, folks!

You have to know a bit about Serratia marcescens before you jump to conclusions.

1. It isn't a virus. It's a bacteria, so Livedowntownandluvit, your mom wouldn't be suffering from this if they wanted her tested for a virus.

2. It isn't an unusual bacteria. Serratia can be found in your bathroom or kitchen or anywhere that is damp. It often looks like a pink film on your tiles or sink or tub.

3. It can be killed with cleaning agents like bleach, which is often used to clean bathrooms and kitchens.

4. Usually, the people who suffer ill effects from Serratia are already immunocompromised.

How do I know this? It took me awhile to figure out what the pink film in my bathroom was, but after some searching and talking to environmental people, it turns out it's Serratia marcescens. I just make sure to clean these areas more often and ensure that the humidity isn't high in the house.

There's some cleaning to be done at the hospital, no doubt.

I'm having elective surgery at Seven Oaks in Jan. Should I start taking antibiotics now?!?!

this same thing is happening at ST B . friend of mine is in there in bad condition from it geesh , she caught it at ST B

what equipment used for anything to do with blood are cleaned and re-used??????

As I attempted to post earlier. Why is this just released now, and if they knew about the potential in summer, shouldn't people at least privately been alerted.

my mom is at HSC right now, and they were very mysteriously suggesting she get tested for some virus and no one could answer her questions as to why or where it would have come from. Well maybe its in HSC too and we haven't heard about it yet. She was in back in October, and back again sicker in December. She'd better not have any infection from being in the emergency room, or they will have to answer lots of questions. I don't know why the families aren't demanding answers.

Were the people informed privately prior to this news release? Its a long time since last summer at this point.

Hey, Mike, wake up and smell the coffee....if you really think in today's day and age, that the health care system reuses blood collecting devices, think again. You should perhaps not compare apples to oranges in regards to what is affordable and not...atheletes are paid millions and do you see them helping the needy? (instead they go out and have affairs with women and leave their wife at home). What you really need to ask, is the compentency of a health care worker, are they using aspetic technique and basically, are they washing their hands between patients? We all know doctors are famous for not washing their hands in between patients. You just need to talk to the infection control dept of any hospital and you can be rest assured that hand washing alone will reduce infection rates.

They have to stop trying to save a buck and stop cleaning and reusing anything to do with blood. Funny how we can spend millions to buy sports fields that are too small yet we can not afford proper equipment to avoid problems like this.

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