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Patients admitted to Auckland City Hospital over the next two to four months will be screened for a contagious superbug after three patients became infected with the antibiotic-resistant strain.
Of the three infected with vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), two have died.
Auckland District Health Board chief medical officer David Sage said they had died of other causes.
The other infected patient has been treated and discharged.
Dr Sage said VRE had been known since 1996, and New Zealand hospitals had seen between four and 10 cases every year since. But over the last two months, Auckland City Hospital has had four cases and 33 patients have been diagnosed as carriers. Dr Sage said it was quite common overseas. VRE is normally spread by direct contact with hands, environmental surfaces or contaminated medical equipment. It is generally not harmful, unless it infects the bloodstream, when it could be life-threatening. There were a limited number of drugs for VRE, but it was still treatable, said Dr Sage.
He said the hospital had had a "top-to-bottom" disinfection and all carriers had been isolated. Ten patients remained in isolation while the rest had been treated and discharged.
The hospital is also swabbing all patients who come in- a procedure Dr Sage expects to be kept up for two to four months.
