Verona, 6 May 2024 – The three newborns infected in the premature ward of the hospital are doing well.Borgo Trento hospital in Verona but to establish exactly what it is the responsible bacterium of the infection we still need time. Meanwhile it took off new alert for citrobacterwhich at the Borgo Trento hospital between 2018 and 2020 infected a hundred newbornswith 4 deaths and a dozen children who reported disabilities due to the infection.
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Verona, three newborns infected in the premature ward: the Citrobacter nightmare returns
Requires “long time” genomic investigation to establish whether the bacterium identified in the three newborns in the neonatal intensive care unit of the Verona hospital is from same strain four years ago, the “Citrobacter” which caused death and injuries in other children. This was specified in a note by the Veronese integrated university hospital (Aou). While the conditions of the three children who tested positive they do not cause concernthe obstetric-gynecological emergency room remains active for emergencies during pregnancy at any gestational age, and for all pregnancies beyond the 34th week. An ambulance transport service has been activated for preterm women already hospitalized in labor, for whom clinicians deem it safe to transfer to other Veneto facilities.
The alert was triggered last Friday, when the system entrance surveillance ie patients in Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU), thanks to the advanced test used for research for citrobacter koseri, reported an abnormal result, for the first time in four years. This triggered i strict isolation protocols and increasing protection in the department (extraordinary checks, convening of the Hospital Infection Group and Hospital Infection Commission). As a precaution they were hospitalizations were immediately suspended of pregnant women below the 33rd week of gestation, since premature births require hospitalization in the ICU in most cases.
The Aou also states 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 antibacterial filters. Tap water was the cause of the Citrobacter infection four years ago. The results of the investigations on the three premature newborns who tested positive for the bacterium have reduced the alert. A newborn was already discharged at home in good condition, a second tested negative and only one is still positive but without signs of infection, so he is fine.
