Newborn Infections Scandal: Maternity Hospital Employees Found With Drug-Resistant Bacteria

According to the ministry, 11 from the 49 employees of the institution’s neonatalogy section were found to carry methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, the same type of bacteria found in twelve newborns birthed at the hospital since October 24.

Following these findings, the ministry announced that it will begin verifications in all maternity hospitals throughout the country.

Fourteen newborns who were birthed at Bucharest’s Giulesti Maternity Hospital were hospitalized at the Grigore Alexandrescu pediatric emergency clinic with diverse infections. Twelve of them were diagnosed with different forms off the staphylococcus aureus bacteria.

“We’ve treated fourteen patients, all within their first month of life, and twelve of them were diagnosed with a methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, in diferrent stages. As for the other two, the bacteria was not confirmed in one of them, and the other one is still under analysis,” a spokesperson for the Grigore Alexandrescu hospital told MEDIAFAX.

The spokesperson specified that six of the infants are still hospitalized, three with respiratory problems and the others with dermal infections. The infections were all found in infants birthed in the maternity unit after October 24.

The institution reported all of the cases to the Bucharest Public Health Directorate.

A spokesperson for the Giulesti Maternity Hospital denied the idea that the infants caught in the infections while they were in the clinic, adding that the institution started epidemiologic investigations.