Infectious disease specialist Rogério Ruas, a doctor at that hospital in the Porto district, explained today to journalists that the patients are infected by a bacteria known by the acronym EPC, "common in hospital environments".

"We have seen an increase in cases since the beginning of the year and this month we had an outbreak, reaching 80 patients hospitalized colonized by the bacteria", he said.

According to the clinician, of the approximately 80 cases, "only a small portion of these patients are actually infected, about 5%".

The situation was denounced today by the Order of Nurses, in a statement, warning of the difficulties observed in the hospital due to the outbreak, with 20% of the approximately 450 hospitalized patients being contaminated.

Rogério Ruas pointed out that this bacteria exists in the hospital "as in others in the country".

"It is normal, for some time now, hospitals have had an increase in cases and then a decrease. It is cyclical and, at this moment, we are having this situation".

He also noted that last-line antibiotics are being used in the treatment, which is "an effective treatment".

"That is why we want to control the spread of these bacteria, which is what we are trying to do at this moment", he added.

One of the procedures adopted is that patients with risk factors are screened upon admission to the hospital and, he explained, "depending on whether they are positive or not, they are directly allocated to the contact isolation ward".

Questioned about the criticisms of the Order of Nurses, according to which the insufficiency of those professionals, namely in the emergency department, may have contributed to the outbreak, he said that at the Padre Américo Hospital "the pressure in the emergency department is continuous".

"What this situation implies is one more change in the way we allocate these patients. This pressure is old and not from now. We are focused on this situation. We have these measures that continue to work and we will continue to monitor the situation in the coming days", he noted.

Read Also: IGAS archives the case of the death of an elderly woman in the emergency department of the Penafiel hospital (Portuguese version)