MEDIA RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 15, 2010

Brockville General Hospital Declares

MRSA Outbreak Officially Over

Brockville General Hospital’s Infection Control is happy to announce that the recent outbreak of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is over. With three rounds of point prevalence testing showing no new transmissions, the outbreak could be declared finished as of July 15th.

MRSA is Staphylococcus (Staph) bacteria that has become resistant to the antibiotics commonly used to treat ordinary Staph infections. BGH became aware that the number of hospital acquired (nosocomial) MRSA cases had increased on June 30th.  BGH operates normally with a baseline of five cases per month.  Further testing continued over that weekend, with results at double the baseline (10 cases).  An MRSA outbreak was declared on Monday, July 5th.

Heather Crawford, VP Clinical Services/Chief Nursing Executive, is very pleased with the rapid and efficient response by BGH staff to the outbreak.

“I want to extend a huge ‘thank-you’ to all BGH staff for their attention to our outbreak procedures,” says Crawford, “and for bringing our outbreak under control so quickly.”

For more information, please contact:

Maggie Wheeler Communications Officer BROCKVILLE GENERAL HOSPITAL 613-345-5649 Ext. 1-1504

Healthy people – Outstanding Care

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