KEY POINTS:
The patient who triggered the superbug scare probably picked up the strain overseas and was carrying it when admitted to Auckland City Hospital.
But the patient was not a foreigner, had not been transferred between hospitals, "and it wasn't a patient who died either", said Dr David Sage, Auckland City Hospital's chief medical officer.
Dr Sage was responding to claims by outgoing Auckland District Health Board chairman Wayne Brown who told last weekend's Herald on Sunday that the vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) was caused by a "dying foreign patient".
The patient, who doctors first became aware was carrying the bug, had infected others and had probably contracted the infection while travelling.
It was brought into the hospital in August and was passed on to two other patients.
This was the first cluster of what became a 38-patient outbreak causing an unprecedented hospital-wide surveillance and clean-up operation.
On Thursday, the hospital announced that both the Starship and National Women's Health, both part of Auckland City Hospital, were clear of VRE.
