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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The spokesperson of Kowloon Hospital (KH) made the following announcement today (May 5):
A 62-year-old female patient of an extended care ward of KH was confirmed to be a Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci (VRE) carrier on May 1. In accordance with the prevailing infection control guidelines, the hospital has screened patients who had contact with the index patient, three patients (aged 66 to 83) who had stayed in the same ward were confirmed to be VRE carriers without clinical symptoms today. All the patients are under medical surveillance and isolation with stable condition.
The Infection Control Team, the departments concerned and experts of the Centre for Health Protection had discussed and decided to adopt the following enhanced infection control measures:
1. Strongly encourage patients to perform hand hygiene;
2. Enhanced hand hygiene for staff;
3. Applied stringent contact precautions, including dedicated use of clinical items to VRE carriers; and
4. Enhanced environmental and equipment decontamination.
The Infection Control Team will continue to closely monitor the situation of the ward. The cases have been reported to the Hospital Authority Head Office and the Centre for Health Protection for necessary follow up.
Ends/Monday, May 5, 2014
Issued at HKT 19:41
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