Superbug forces hospital ward closure

Christchurch Hospital has closed one of its surgical wards after five patients tested positive for the antibiotic-resistant bacteria MRSA.

The ward will remain closed to new admissions until all tests on patients and staff return a negative result, a district health board spokeswoman said.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was generally harmless for healthy people but could cause infections that were hard to treat in people who were already unwell.

"Canterbury District Health Board hospitals are among an increasingly small number of hospitals in the world where MRSA is not present all the time and we want to keep it that way," said Christchurch Hospital interim general manager Ruth Barclay.

"It is a difficult bug to control as it is ever present in the community but for the sake of our patients we work hard to keep it out of our hospitals."

Good handwashing was the most powerful infection control precaution that could be taken and this was being emphasised with staff, patients and visitors to the hospital.

- NZPA