Agonising wait for parents of 24 babies

Published on Sunday 22 January 2012 00:00

PARENTS of 24 babies tested for an infection that has killed three others in a Northern Ireland hospital will learn tomorrow if their child has been infected.

As a deep clean of the neonatal unit at Belfast’s Royal Maternity Hospital continued, worried parents could only wait for the test results.

A Belfast Health and Social Care Trust spokesman confirmed all babies in the unit who may have been exposed to the pseudomonas bacterial infection had been tested.

Three infants have died in the outbreak and four more were found to have been infected.

One child was still undergoing treatment yesterday, two have fully recovered and one other made a recovery but subsequently died of an unrelated cause.

A spokesman for Northern Ireland’s Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety said the baby who was still undergoing treatment was responding well yesterday.

Pseudomonas, which lives in water or moisture and can be found on the skin, causes chest, blood and urinary tract infections in the vulnerable.

Staff were set to continue with their deep clean today, while officials try to identify the source of infection. The intensive care room, which holds up to 13 babies, has been cleared and babies moved to separate small rooms.

Two Northern Irish women have had to travel to Dublin to have their babies due to the outbreak.