Cancer hospital admits fungus deaths

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Cancer hospital admits fungus deaths

Daily Telegraph - Sydney,New South Wales,Australia

http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,19479914-

5001028,00.html

June 15, 2006

MELBOURNE'S leading cancer hospital has admitted that three of its

patients died from being exposed to a fungus in its intensive care

unit, but has played down fears of any further deaths.

The MacCallum Cancer Centre, in East Melbourne, today said an

investigation was underway into the patient deaths, which happened

over a six-month period and were caused by exposure to the fungus

aspergillus.

All three patients were treated in the hospital's intensive care

unit (ICU) where the fungus was detected on May 31.

The fungus poses a grave risk to people whose immune systems are

suppressed, such as cancer patients, but is generally not a risk for

healthy people.

The cancer centre's chief executive Craig said aspergillus

was found after a patient being treated for advanced cancer in the

ICU died in May from aspergillosis.

The condition, which usually affects the lungs, can develop when

people inhale spores from aspergillus fungus, which is found in

soil, compost heaps, and water.

The cancer centre's head of infectious diseases, Dr Slavin,

said the hospital had since checked patient records and found that

two other patients treated in the ICU had also died from

aspergillosis in the past six months.

" We looked back over the past 12 months to see if there were any

other cases or episodes of aspergillosis which might have been

linked to the intensive care (unit), " Dr Slavin said.

" We were able to identify two other cases and those patients died.

" We did start an investigation and that is still currently ongoing. "

The hospital did not reveal the deaths of the three patients or the

fungus problem in its ICU until today, despite knowing about it for

two weeks.

" We weren't really able to go into that yesterday because not all

the patients families had been notified, " Dr Slavin said.

Health Services Union (HSU) state secretary Kathy said she

was concerned that the hospital had only publicised the fungus

problem today.

" We need a commitment from the Bracks Government to set in place

protocols to make the reporting of any such infections mandatory to

both patients and the workforce, " Ms said.

" This is a serious issue, as far as we are concerned, about

transparency in the health sector, " she said.

Dr Slavin said patients most at risk from the fungus were those

undergoing treatments such as a bone marrow transplants.

It was the second health scare for the hospital in 24 hours, after

it confirmed yesterday that low levels of legionella had been found

in one of its cooling towers.

" The reason why we cleaned our ICU on Monday June 5th had nothing to

do with legionella but it did have to do with our concern about a

fungus called aspergillus, " Mr said.

He said tests conducted since the extensive clean, repair and

general maintenance of the ICU on June 5 had revealed no trace of

aspergillus.

He said he had preliminary discussions with the coroner about the

deaths.

Health minister Bronwyn Pike said she was confident the hospital had

the proper infection-control system in place, and it had acted

responsibly by informing the public.

" They are being extremely cautious, they have voluntarily notified

the coroner even though this is not a notifiable disease, " Ms Pike

told ABC radio.

" The coroner is looking at the three cases and seeing if there is a

connection or a pattern between all of them, " she said.