The Editorial Staff
06 May 2024 16:16
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The alert at the neonatal intensive care unit of the Borgo Trento hospital has been reduced. The three children colonized by a bacterium are fine. And there was no certainty from the Verona Integrated University Hospital (Aoui) that it was the same citrobacter koseri that infected several newborns between 2018 and 2020, killing 4 and leaving serious injuries in 9 others.
The results of the investigations on the three premature newborns found to be colonized by a bacterium on the afternoon of Friday 3 May were expected today, May 6th. And the results are good: one newborn has already been discharged and is at home in good condition, a second has tested negative and only the third is still positive but without signs of infection. And so he’s fine too.
The alert was triggered on Friday, when the surveillance system on the entrances and patients of the neonatal intensive care unit reported an anomalous result, for the first time in 4 years. This triggered the strict isolation and protection protocols of the neonatal intensive care unit, with extraordinary checks and the summoning of the hospital infections group and the hospital infections commission. And as a precaution, the hospitalizations of women who could have given birth to premature babies in need of care in the neonatal intensive care unit were immediately suspended.
The obstetric-gynecological emergency room remained active for emergencies and urgencies of all pregnant women. Furthermore, the ambulance transport service has been activated for preterm women already hospitalized and for whom clinicians deem transfer to other Veneto facilities safe to do.
In any case, the Borgo Trento birth center was not closed completely, as happened in June 2020, because the active provisions for neonatal intensive care do not affect full-term births.
Aoui has no certain data on what type of bacteria colonized the three newborns. «It is not currently possible to establish whether the bacterium identified is the same strain as 4 years ago, as the genomic investigation carried out requires longer times – we read in a press release from the hospital – Furthermore, it is underlined that the water distributed in the hospital it is safe because it is subjected to systematic checks and all the water points to which patients are exposed are equipped with anti-bacterial filters”. An emphasis, that of water, linked to the fact that the 2020 Citrobacter infections occurred through water taken from a tap.
«It is a ubiquitous microorganism, just think that a healthy organism coexists with at least two million bacteria without this creating health problems – explained (in the video) Dr. Luca Brizzi, director of the unit for health and hygiene functions risk prevention – Obviously this does not apply to subjects such as premature babies who have fragile immune systems. For this reason, the management of infectious risk in our intensive care unit is very high on a daily basis, as demonstrated by the timely identification of the first anomalous case. The immediate activation of an extraordinary protocol then followed, and as company practice the general management promptly activated an always active task force.” A protocol which, in addition to the task force, also included an inspection of the neonatal intensive care unit, the activation of environmental sanitisation in addition to the daily one, the suspension of patient transfers to other departments and the identification of medical and nursing teams dedicated to newborns colonized by the bacterium.
