The government has confirmed that the Bustamante Hospital for Children in St. Andrew was this year affected by the highly contagious MRSA bacterium.
MRSA is associated with conditions of close personal contact, poor hygiene, and exposure to contaminated objects. The bacterium is resistant to a number of widely used antibiotics.
The infection causes bumps, pimples and boils to develop on children and may result in blood poisoning and heart complications.
Medical sources told our news center that last week a number of children at Bustamante Children’s hospital were quarantined after being affected by the MRSA infection.
Responding to questions today, Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Marion Bullock-Ducasse said there’s no current outbreak. But Dr. Ducasse says there was an outbreak of the infection in July of this year.
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If the MRSA bacterium get into a break in the skin, it may cause potentially deadly infections, such as blood poisoning or complications of the heart valves.
Dr. Ducasse says she’s unable to say if anyone has died of the infection outbreak in July. But she insisted that the outbreak has been contained.
Yesterday in Parliament, Health Minister Dr. Fenton Ferguson, declined to give a direct answer when asked about an outbreak of MRSA at the Bustamante Hospital.
Ferguson was being questioned by West Portland MP, Daryl Vaz,
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Mr. Vaz pressed on.
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