Norovirus suspected at hospital ward

A suspected norovirus outbreak has closed a ward at Dunedin Hospital and led to some surgery being postponed.

Ward 5B, for neurosciences, eyes, and ear, nose and throat patients, was closed on Monday night after seven staff and three patients started falling ill and were suspected to have the highly contagious virus.

Otago District Health Board infection prevention and control charge nurse manager Jo Stodart said another patient and another staff member fell ill yesterday.

Staff have been kept away from work until they are 48 hours symptom-free to prevent cross-infection, she said.

The ward was not accepting any more patients or allowing visitors.

Patients who were seriously unwell and would usually be admitted to 5B were being admitted to other wards, but five patients who were going to be admitted for scheduled surgery have had their operations postponed.

It was possible the outbreak could spread to other areas of the hospital.

However, early detection of the outbreak meant control measures were put in place promptly and limited the spread of the outbreak, Mrs Stodart said.

Patients who were fit to be discharged home would be, but no patients with symptoms of norovirus would be discharged to other facilities, such as rest homes, she said.

Test results to determine if the cause was norovirus were expected next week.

Norovirus was always present in communities and has been increasingly affecting people in the Dunedin area recently, she said.

Outbreaks could occur when the virus infected people gathered in one place, such as in hospitals or rest-homes, or at events.

Last month, 24 residents and five staff were affected by a suspected norovirus outbreak at a Dunedin rest-home.

This week, the hospital has been struggling with a shortage of beds, but operations manager Megan Boivin said it was "back to business as usual" despite the ward closure.

A code black alert was issued on Sunday when the hospital had only five beds free and some elective surgery was postponed on Monday.

However, the hospital was now in code red and had 12 beds available at 4.30pm with more discharges expected later.

 

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