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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 (April 28):
A 72-year-old male patient of a rehabilitation ward at KH was confirmed to be a Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci (VRE) carrier on April 23. In accordance with the prevailing infection control guidelines, the hospital has screened patients who had contact with the index patient. Two male patients (aged 84 and 90) who had stayed in the same ward were confirmed to be VRE carriers without clinical symptoms. All the patients are under medical surveillance and isolation and are in a stable condition.
KH's Infection Control Team, the departments concerned and experts of the Centre for Health Protection have discussed and decided to adopt the following enhanced infection control measures:
1.Strongly encourage patients perform hand hygiene;
2.Enhanced hand hygiene of 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/Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Issued at HKT 16:52
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