Calm night for Legionnaire’s babies

THE NEWBORNS hospitalised in the Neonatal Unit of the Makarios Hospital where they are being treated for Legionnaires’ disease passed a “calm” night, according to their doctor

The Head of Makarios Hospital’s paediatric department, Dr Andreas Hadjidemetriou, yesterday said that “three of the infants remain on the respirator as they are suffering from a severe case of pneumonia”.

Hadjidemetriou said the condition of the three infants remained stable, pointing out that they had shown no signs of improvement. He said the situation remained difficult, adding, however, that the fact that there had been no deterioration in their condition, gave hope that the symptoms would subside.

Regarding the other seven infants, Hadjidemetriou said that “their condition has improved. Some of them have even started feeding normally”.

Asked if the four babies that are not in incubators are expected to be discharged soon, Hadjidemetriou said “they will remain here until the treatment is completed and until we receive the results from the laboratories that they are clear of the disease.”

Hadjidemetriou said the symptoms would subside very slowly and improvement would be gradual. “We were not expecting to see signs of the symptoms subsiding immediately, but the fact is that there is stabilisation, which leaves us with the impression that the disease is under our control; however it does not exclude the possibility of complications arising. Unfortunately the pathophysiology of Legionnaires’ is such that we have to wait several days to see an improvement.”

The babies have been at the Makarios Hospital for 9 days now. All eleven babies diagnosed with Legionnaires’ were born at the Hippocration clinic between December 17 and December 27. One of the newborns infected with the disease died on Tuesday morning.

The state’s Health Services will deliver the first results of the lab tests carried out on samples taken from the Hippocration in the coming days.

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