Multi-drug resistant virus outbreak at Themba Hospital in Mpumalanga

 4 May 2016

Hot on the heels of a klebsiella flare-up at KZN’s Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital, we are now reliably informed that there has been an outbreak of the multi-drug resistant superbug at the Themba Hospital in Kabokweni, outside White River, Mpumalanga.

As such I will urgently write to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NCID) to urgently intervene to ensure that this dangerous – and potentially fatal – outbreak can be contained and to brief Parliament on these interventions.

The NCID should intervene directly to ensure that emergency infection control systems are put into place as a matter of urgency.

At least one patient in the hospital has been isolated in a ward and staff were informed of the outbreak at a staff meeting this week. 

On 23 January 2016, I attempted to go to the Themba Hospital on an oversight visit of medical waste removal and infection control systems – but was blocked in a most brutish fashion by security at the entrance and I was not able to conduct my visit.

In the case of Themba Hospital, where there have been problems with water supply, an adequate supply of water must be guaranteed so that medics can at least wash their hands and operate in an environment of cleanliness.

The outbreak at Durban’s Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital’s neonatal ICU, where 10 babies were infected in less than two weeks, has now, thankfully, been contained.

To this end both the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, and the NICD should not rest until infection control systems in both hospitals are completely compliant with specified norms.

It is diabolical that patients should face the prospect of dying in a hospital because they acquire infections in the very places meant to heal them.

The DA will be monitoring the situation in both hospitals to ensure that effective steps are taken by all the stakeholders, so that these outbreaks are eradicated as a matter of urgency.

Issued by Wilmot James, DA Shadow Minister of Health, 4 May 2016