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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The spokesperson for Kowloon Central Cluster made the following announcement today (August 2) regarding two clusters of Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci cases:
Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) earlier announced the confirmation of a cluster of patients as carriers of Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci (VRE) in a medical ward. In accordance with the prevailing infection control guidelines, contact tracing has been performed. Seven more patients (aged 49 to 80) have been confirmed as having VRE today. Six of the patients are VRE carriers without clinical symptoms, while the remaining one has infection with appropriate treatment given. The patients concerned are still hospitalised and are now under medical surveillance and isolation with stable condition. The hospital held a Root Cause Analysis meeting today to identify potential risks and adopted the following infection control measures immediately:
- Strongly encouraging patients to perform hand hygiene;
- Applying enhanced hand hygiene including mobile staff;
- Applying stringent contact precautions, including dedicated use of clinical items to VRE carriers;
- Applying enhanced environmental and equipment decontamination; and
- Applying an active surveillance culture for high-risk patients.
In addition, a 74-year-old male patient in an extended care ward of Kowloon Hospital was confirmed to be a VRE carrier on July 24. In accordance with the prevailing infection control guidelines, the hospital has screened patients who had contact with the index patient. Eleven male patients (aged 65 to 85) have been confirmed to be VRE carriers, but without clinical symptoms. The patients concerned are still hospitalised under medical surveillance and isolation with stable condition. The following enhanced infection control measures have already been adopted:
- Single room is arranged for VRE-positive patients;
- Applied stringent contact precautions, including dedicated use of clinical items to VRE carriers;
- Enhanced hand hygiene;
- Focusing more closely on contamination-prone procedures; and
- Enhanced disinfection and cleansing of the ward concerned.
The cluster will continue the enhanced infection control measures and closely monitor the situation. The cases have been reported to the Hospital Authority Head Office and the Centre for Health Protection for necessary follow-up.
Ends/Friday, August 2, 2013
Issued at HKT 19:37
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