BIOPHAGE PHARMA (fka BIPMF)

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Honduras Closes Hospital's Newborn Unit

Wednesday March 14, 2007 6:01 AM

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) - The newborn unit of a main public hospital was closed indefinitely Tuesday after a bacterial outbreak killed six infants in two days, health officials said.

Two of the victims were the last surviving babies of quintuplets born Jan. 13, said Samuel Santos, chief of neonatology for the Mario Rivas Hospital in San Pedro Sula, 110 miles north of the capital of Tegucigalpa. The other three quintuplets had died earlier, apparently of unrelated causes.

``We have declared a state of emergency until it can be controlled,'' Santos said.

The bacteria, discovered a week ago, was identified as serratia marcescens, which is resistant to antibiotics and disinfectants, he said.

On Monday, 48 infants in the newborn unit were transferred to other areas of the hospital. A medical team is conducting an investigation.

Online source:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6479002,00.html