Aussie Hospital ICU Closed on Pseudomonas Bacteria

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DECEMBER 13, 13:07 ET

Aussie Hospital ICU Closed on Bacteria

ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) - An antibiotic-resistant bacteria forced officials

to close the intensive care unit at an Adelaide hospital and may have killed

a patient, health officials said Thursday.

Queen Hospital in South Australia state said the Pseudomonas

bacterium was found in routine screening of a patient who was transferred

from Sydney's St. Hospital on Nov. 29.

They said testing turned up the infection in two other patients, one of whom

died Nov. 4. The exact cause of death has yet to be determined.

Two other ICU patients were found to have a less severe variety of the

bacteria and were expected to respond to antibiotics.

Queen Hospital director of infectious diseases, Professor

Grove, said the severe strain of Pseudomonas was resistant to nine

antibiotics. If the patients' conditions deteriorate, doctors may give them

a relatively untried antibiotic, he said.

He said Pseudomonas bacteria are found in wet areas such as laundries or

bathrooms and are capable of mutating to increase their resistance. They are

a major cause of hospital-acquired infections.

New South Wales state health authorities in Sydney said the woman suspected

to have spread the bacteria had been hospitalized in Sydney for more than

five months with a stomach tumor.

St. Hospital said the woman developed a resistant strain of bacteria

after receiving extensive antibiotic treatment following surgery and

chemotherapy. The woman was transferred to the hospital in Adelaide, where

her family lives, for compassionate reasons.