WILLEMSTAD — The Klebsiella pneumonia, a bacterium found in the mouth, intestines and skin was discovered in the St. Elisabeth Hospital (Sehos). Although the number of infected patients is unknown, Sehos is taking far-reaching measures to prevent and control the bacterium, medical director Cai Winkel confirmed.

According to Winkel, people visiting the hospital will also notice something of these measures. The hospital organized a press conference on this matter this afternoon. Diabetics, people with a chronic long disease, and alcoholics are extra vulnerable for this bacterium. Klebsiella can appear as a harmless bacterium in the intestines and the upper bronchial tubes. The seriousness of an infection mainly has to do with the patient’s condition. It’s a bacterium that is often resistant for certain antibiotics. According to guidelines, infected patients are to be isolated immediately and nursing staff are to wear protective clothing.

Symptoms

Patients with Klebsiella pneumonia usually have a high fever, shivers, flu-like symptoms and sticky mucus. Compared with a normal pneumonia, whereby the lungs usually recover without complications, the consequences are more serious. Pus around the lungs can cause abscesses and scar tissue.

An epidemic broke out in the Netherlands last year in the Maasstad Hospital, Rotterdam. The hospital hadn’t observed the rules to control the infections, thus allowing the epidemic of the resistant Klebsiella-bacterium to spread. Approximately 28 patients infected with the bacterium had died. In total, 98 patients were carrying the multi-resistant ClebsiellaOxa-48 variant or had done so in the past, according to an investigation from the hospital. The bacterium had been found in a urine sample of a patient who had been operated on in the hospital in Rotterdam. The Inspection for Health had placed the hospital under watch and ward at the end of July 2011 because it wasn’t confident the hospital was taking sufficient or correct measures. The investigation presented on March 29^th last revealed there was no specific ‘culprit’ for the drama but that elementary mistakes had been made in the entire process and at all levels.