TWO DIE AFTER PIGEONS INFECT HOSPITAL PATIENTS
Victims infected after breathing in fatal disease from bird droppings at £842m super hospital
Two patients died after being infected by pigeon droppings at a flagship £ 842 million hospital.
The deaths at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow prompted demands for urgent answers last night as patients, their families, and staff remained uncertain about when the fatal contamination occurred or how it had spread.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde claimed the fungal infection likely came from a plant room and was breathed in by the victims. However, the infection occurred in December but was only revealed yesterday and Scottish Labour’ s shadow health secretary Monica Lennon said the hospital had to give the fullest information: “The public deserve to be told and told quickly.”
Two patients have died after contracting a deadly infection blamed on pigeon droppings at a flagship hospital.
The victims – one elderly, one unknown – are thought to have breathed in the airborne fungal infection after it entered the ventilation system at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.
The hospital says the likely source of the cryptococcus infection has been identified as pigeon droppings in a machinery room patients can’t access.
The two patients who died had been receiving treatment for the infection and, last night, Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board was urged to give the fullest explanation of what had happened to reassure patients and staff.
Scottish Labour’s shadow health secretary Monica Lennon said: “The public must be told exactly how this tragedy happened and they must be told quickly.”
Vulnerable children and adults being treated at the 1,677- bed hospital have been given anti- fungal medication in a move to stop them becoming infected. Control measures have also been put in place to filter air in the £ 842 million super hospital.
There have so far been no other confirmed cases. A spokesman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “We can confirm an elderly patient has sadly died, but of an unrelated cause. “A second patient has also sadly died and the factors contributing to the death a re still being investigated.
“Our thoughts are with the families at this distressing time. Due to patient confidentiality we cannot share further details of the two cases.”
The NHS spokesman added: “The organism is harmless to the vast majority of people and rarely causes disease in humans.”
People with cryptococcus are not infectious as it is contracted by inhaling the microscopic fungi, commonly found in soil and pigeon droppings.
An investigation is under way to establish how the two infected patients breathed in the fungi given that there is no public access to the area believed to be its source.
The pigeon droppings have since been cleared from the area.
Professor Hugh Pennington, an epidemiolgist at Aberdeen University, said stopping the airborne infection entering the hospital’s ventilation system would have been a key priority.
He said: “Obviously, they have stopped the pigeons getting into the machine room.
“It surprises me slightly that there was any there in the first place.”
Prof Pennington added that cryptococcus is unusual in the UK and poses most risk to people with weak immune systems.
He said: “It is very unusual in the UK. It is quite common in other parts of the world, particularly in tropical parts and in the US.
“When it gets into the bloodstream a lot of people have fairly straightforward infections and it settles in the lungs but the big problem with this is that it can cause meningitis and meningitis can be a very serious infection.”
Portable Hepa units, which filter air, are being used in parts of the hospital and a group of patients was moved due to the nature of their illness and treatment.
Teresa Inkster, NHSGCC lead consultant for infection control, said: “Cryptococcus lives in the environment throughout the world. It rarely causes infection in humans.
“People can become infected with it after breathing in the microscopic fungi, although most people who are exposed to it never get sick from it.
“There have been no further cases since the control measures were put in place.
“In the meantime we are continuing to monitor the air quality and these results are being analysed.”
Last night, Scottish Labour’s shadow health secretary Monica Lennon called for the Scottish Government and NHSGGC to investigate the outbreak.
She said: “Patients and the wider public need to be reassured as a matter of urgency that this unit is safe.
“Questions have been building up for days about maintenance and routine procedures, in what is the latest controversy to over shadow Glasgow’ s super-hospital.”
A separate issue relating to the sealant in shower rooms was also uncovered in the investigation into the cryptococcus outbreak.
Patients and staff deserve to know exactly how this tragedy happened. The health board must tell them and tell them quickly – Shadow health secretary Monica Lennon