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Dr. Sandra Chambers, Regional Technical Director in the Southeast Regional Health Authority
The Ministry of Health says the outbreak of the Klebsiella Pneumoniae bacteria at Victoria Jubilee Hospital has been brought under control.
The bacteria is said to have caused the deaths of at least a dozen newborns at the country's premier maternity institution.
Speaking on Radio Jamaica's Hotline programme Friday morning, Regional Technical Director in the Southeast Regional Health Authority Dr. Sandra Chambers said the ministry took immediate action after noticing an increased number of newborn deaths at the hospital in July.
She said the team did a walk-through of the facility, noting: "We swabbed the walls, we swabbed the babies, we swabbed the staff, we swabbed the cots and we even did water and soap."
Dr. Chambers said gaps were identified and ways suggested in which to correct them. Among the measures recommended was an increase in the frequency of cleaning as well as an increase in how often soaps are changed to prevent the build up bacteria.
She admitted that the chronic shortage of neonatal nurses could have also triggered the outbreak of the bacteria.
While the number of babies being born has increased, there has been no change to the nursing cadre "and so, you have one nurse to be nursing up to eight babies when there should only be doing one or two," she explained.
She acknowledged that "if you're moving between babies then sometimes something can happen".
Dr. Chambers said the various infection control practices, such as "washing our hands between babies" and changing personal protective equipment, must be observed.
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