Three Patients Die As Listeria Outbreak Hits the Royal

By Claire Harrison

Chiefs at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast are dealing with an extremely rare outbreak of the bug after five patients were found to have listeriosis.

Dr Tony Stevens, medical director with the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust which has responsibility for the Royal, confirmed that three of the five patients have since died while the remaining two are recovering well.

The five were aged between 66 and 76 and were each suffering from other illnesses. He said that the three who died were suffering from life-limiting conditions.

Listeriosis is caused by a common bug sometimes found in foodstuffs such as pate, soft cheeses, smoked fish, sandwiches and cooked meats. Dr Stevens said that while investigations are ongoing, the hospital could not rule out that the patients fell ill after eating a hospital meal.

Among the avenues being explored is the possibility that the infected food came from outside the hospital, via a food supplier, to the hospital kitchens or restaurant.

As a precautionary measure, some foods have been removed from patient menus in the Royal and other hospitals managed by the Belfast Trust.

Relatives are being asked not to bring food into the hospital while patients are being urged to only eat food provided to them on the wards at mealtimes by hospital staff.

Dr Stevens told the Belfast Telegraph that an outbreak of listeria in a hospital-setting was extremely rare and he was not aware of any in Northern Ireland in recent decades.

The Eastern Health and Social Services Board is one of the agencies involved in the investigation, along with the Food Standards Agency and environmental health officers.

The Royal’s kitchens were examined as part of the investigation and no problems found.

Dr Stevens added: “We’re confident with the food that we provide to patients and we would advise patients to only eat food given to them at mealtimes. We are confident this is not a problem with our kitchens or how food is processed or managed in them.

“We just don’t know where this has come from and it’s possible we will never know. It is being fully investigated.”

The doctor stressed that listeria is not a hospital superbug and can be treated with antibiotics.

The Belfast Trust said that “any risk to the wider community was small” and all the families had been contacted.

In normally fit and healthy people, listeriosis can lead to short- term illness with symptoms such as mild fever and diarrhoea.

It can cause more serious illness and even death in people who are already ill from other causes. It also poses a serious risk to pregnant women.

Fact sheets are being provided for relatives and patients and a Trust information line (0800 9801100) opens daily from 9am-5pm until further notice.

(c) 2008 Belfast Telegraph. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.