Deadly Mystery infection strikes nursing home

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*Plagues, Pestilences and Diseases

Deadly Mystery infection strikes nursing home*

November 02, 2006 06:38pm
Article from: AAP

AUSTRALIA - SEVERAL elderly people have died during an outbreak of a
mystery respiratory infection at a nursing home on the NSW mid-north coast.

The North Coast Area Health Service has confirmed a number of patients
died from the infection at the Coffs Haven Aged Care Facility in Coffs
Harbour in the past month.

However, while health authorities have refused to confirm how many
people were infected, the nursing home's spokesman, Paul Saddler, today
said "less than 10" people had died.

Several other patients from the non-profit facility, run by Living Care,
the aged care arm of the Church of Christ, also were hospitalised with
the illness.

Doctors have been unable to identify the respiratory infection, but have
ruled out legionnaire's disease.

A spokesman for the health service said all patients had been treated
with antibiotics, and the outbreak was now contained at the facility.

All those taken to hospital for treatment were back at the nursing home.

There had been no reported cases in the past week, and the outbreak had
not spread beyond the facility or into the general community, he said.

"They were frail aged people who had, as one would expect, in that sort
of facility, a number of other health problems, and they were obviously
fairly susceptible to this respiratory disease," the spokesman said.

He defended the health service's decision not to alert the public.

"It's not our business to go around naming places," he said.

"It was a privately run nursing home, it wasn't run by us, and our
involvement was to try and help them contain the problem and treat
patients after the outbreak was discovered."

Mr Saddler said the nursing home had gone through the proper steps to
alert authorities and to contain the outbreak. There was no further risk
at the facility.

He said the nursing home was not obliged to give more details to the public.

Mr Saddler said disclosing the exact number of people who had been
affected could compromise the privacy of the deceased and their families.

"In a relatively small community it could lead to actually being able to
identify particular individuals and what might have happened in their
personal lives and how they died," the spokesman said.

"In terms of whether to alert the broader community, that's a judgment
call that the public health unit would make as to whether they think
there is a risk."