Over a span of 15 days, a dozen of newborn babies died due to an outbreak of a bacterial infection at the Neonatal Unit of Sabha Medical Center in south Libya.

The administration of the center explained Sunday that drug-resistant klebsiella bacteria was spread inside the baby incubators of the unit leaving 12 infants dead. It added that this bacteria exists in all hospitals around the world, but in Libya, the infection was bigger due to the dire situation of the country’s health sector that has been torn between two governments.

“The causes of the death also go back to the lack of qualified medical staff that can deal with newborns.” The SMC complained, adding that there are only two nurses working on 20 incubators.

“In addition, Loss of control on the visitors, who are mainly the main source of bringing the bacteria inside the incubators as they come in as well as the repeated entries and departures of the nurses into the unit coming from other units.” The Sabha Medical Center administration outlined.

It also pointed out that it took some measures to better the performance of the center and avoid such losses by bringing a number of new baby Germany-made incubators, stressing that not a single incubator entered the center since 1980. Besides, it will invite doctor Aladdin Al-Sallabi, a specialist in fighting hospital infections at Benghazi University, to provide the medical staff with educational courses about the case in hand.

It also stated that the center will contract new medical staff from Sudan and open a new unit for the baby incubators on the first floor next to the Neonatal Unit after completing the sterilization procedures.

Tags: