The Health Ministry is waiting for results from a specialist laboratory abroad before announcing the source of a Legionella infection in a newborn baby who fell ill days after birth. Meanwhile, the Nicosia Polyclinic has reopened, saying the evidence points to the baby being exposed outside its premises.
“We are still waiting for the laboratory tests to be completed,” Michalis Mendris, a member of the ministry’s Epidemiological Surveillance Unit, told Philenews. He said the tests took considerable time because they were highly specialised. Their aim was to establish beyond doubt whether the baby was infected while at the hospital where it was born, or at home before developing symptoms.
Samples from the hospital, the family’s home and the baby are being examined by the Legionella reference laboratory of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), based in France.
The Nicosia Polyclinic had temporarily suspended operations after initial checks found Legionella in its water supply, and has since reopened.
In a statement, the Polyclinic said traces of Legionella pneumophila had been found at two remote points of its water network. According to its assessment of the findings, these points posed no route of exposure for the newborn or any other patient. It said it had nevertheless immediately applied all required health protocols, in close cooperation with the state authorities.
The Polyclinic said that what it called the completion of laboratory identification had strengthened its initial assessment that it was not the source of the patient’s exposure and infection. It said the initial findings in its water network showed no epidemiological link to the case, and that the available evidence indicated the exposure had taken place outside the hospital. The Health Ministry has not so far confirmed that the laboratory identification has been completed.
During the suspension, the Polyclinic said, its entire water system underwent thermal and chemical disinfection, and specialised microbial retention filters were fitted to all water outlets. Repeat laboratory tests confirmed that no detectable Legionella was present in the samples examined, it said.
