Traces of deadly bug found in children's ward

A POTENTIALLY deadly bug has been detected in the water supply of the children’s ward at University Hospital Galway, the Galway City Tribune can reveal.Unacceptably high levels of bacteria responsible for causing the potentially fatal Legionnaires’ disease were found at water points in the Paediatric Department at the city hospital last week.The Department will have to be partially shut down for various periods on a phased basis during the next six weeks in order to deal with the source of the contamination. The Health Service Executive admitted that this is the sixth time abnormally high readings of Legionella has been discovered at water points in different departments of UHG so far this year. Tests on water points at St Teresa’s Ward, St Pius Ward, St Anthony’s Ward, the Nurses Home, and the Psychiatric ward at UHG throughout 2008 all showed abnormally high levels of the infection.The HSE West has stressed that, to date, no patients have been identified with Legionnaires’ Disease – however, the revelation is a further blow to Galway’s ailing health system and comes just days after chaos reigned at UHG, where on Tuesday, 44 patients were left languishing overnight on trolleys waiting for admission to the 'Third World’ A&E Department. A spokesperson for the HSE said as soon as the abnormal readings of the bug were discovered in the Paediatrics Department last week it immediately removed the affected sinks from service and “there is no ongoing risk to patients”.A full re-plumbing programme in the Paediatrics Unit will begin next week which will be done on a phased basis and this will ...