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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The spokesperson for Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital (PYNEH) made the following announcement today (April 4):
An 86-year-old patient in a male medical ward of PYNEH was confirmed to be a Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci (VRE) carrier on April 2 and the patient has already been discharged. In accordance with the prevailing infection control guidelines, the hospital had screened patients who had contact with the index patient and confirmed two more patients (aged 84 and 87 respectively) to be VRE carriers without clinical symptoms. They are still hospitalised under isolation and medical surveillance with stable condition.
The Infection Control Team, the departments concerned and experts of the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health have discussed and decided to adopt the following enhanced infection control measures in the ward:
* Strongly encourages patients to perform hand hygiene;
* Enhanced hand hygiene of staff;
* Applied stringent contact precautions, including dedicated use of clinical items for VRE carriers; and
* Enhanced environmental and equipment decontamination.
The cases have been reported to the Hospital Authority Head Office and the Centre for Health Protection for necessary follow up.
Ends/Saturday, April 4, 2015
Issued at HKT 18:17
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