The Gauteng Health Department has outlined measures it’s taking to prevent further infections at Tembisa Hospital’s prenatal unit.
These include the deployment of more nurses and resources by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.
This after 17 cases of what is suspected to be Klebsiella pneumonia were reported late last year, resulting in the deaths of 10 babies.
The bacteria are resistant to antibiotics and cause infections in the bloodstream, lungs and urinary tract including pneumonia and meningitis.
Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku says they are implementing a number of processes to help curb the problem.
“We have already employed a number of staff members who are filling up vacancies across the province. We have started the plans of appointing construction to make infrastructure changes and expansion. We are talking about hand washing in the ICU for health workers and parents. We need to also look at pasteurising breast milk from the mothers because we have found cases where a mother in a private hospital had a Klebsiella infection in the breast milk alone. There are a number of effects and impact we need to do.”
Watch MEC Masuku’s full interview on the video below:
