This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27700027
The article has changed 8 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Hospital feed poisons 15 babies | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| One baby has died and 14 are ill with blood poisoning after being given what appears to be a contaminated batch of liquid food. | |
| The babies, many of which were premature, were all being cared for in neonatal intensive care units at six hospitals across England. | The babies, many of which were premature, were all being cared for in neonatal intensive care units at six hospitals across England. |
| The surviving babies are said to be responding to antibiotic treatment. | The surviving babies are said to be responding to antibiotic treatment. |
| They were all given the liquid feed direct to their bloodstream as they could not be mouth fed. | They were all given the liquid feed direct to their bloodstream as they could not be mouth fed. |
| Public Health England and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) are investigating. | |
| They said as the blood poisoning, caused by a bacterium known as Bacillus cereus, develops quickly they were not expecting any more cases. | |
| In a statement, the two organisations said: "Investigations with the company have identified an incident that might have caused contamination." | In a statement, the two organisations said: "Investigations with the company have identified an incident that might have caused contamination." |
| An alert has been issued to recall the contaminated product, manufactured by ITH Pharma Limited, from hospitals. | |
| The batch expired on Monday so should not have been used in the past two days. A total of 162 units were sent out from the contaminated batch to over 20 hospitals. | |
| Source identified | |
| The neonatal units that have reported cases are: | The neonatal units that have reported cases are: |
| • Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust, London (four cases) | • Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust, London (four cases) |
| • Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London (three cases) | • Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London (three cases) |
| • Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust (three cases) | • Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust (three cases) |
| • Addenbrookes, Cambridge University Hospitals (two cases) | • Addenbrookes, Cambridge University Hospitals (two cases) |
| • Luton and Dunstable University Hospital (two cases) | • Luton and Dunstable University Hospital (two cases) |
| • The Whittington Hospital, London (one case) | • The Whittington Hospital, London (one case) |
| Bacillus cereus is a bacterium found widely in the environment in dust, soil and vegetation. Most surfaces would be likely to test positive for the presence of the bacteria. | |
| Prof Mike Catchpole, Public Health England's incident director, said: "This is a very unfortunate incident and PHE have been working closely with the MHRA to investigate how these babies could have become infected. | |
| "Given that the bacterium is widely spread in the environment we are continuing to investigate any other potential sources of infection. | |
| "However all our investigations to date indicate that the likely source of the infection has been identified." |