A hospital in California remained silent despite the fact that ten infants were infected with an antibiotic-resistant superbug inside their facilities over the past six months. Even though the infants were diagnosed with the disease, none of them died.
The staff at the UC Irvine Medical Center have yet to comment about the antibiotic-resistant superbug that hit their neonatal intensive care unit. The hospital secretly battled the spread of MRSA that affected one of two units for newborns with critical condition, according to Daily Mail.
Parents, who became upset upon knowing about the outbreak, stated that they should have been informed first hand. Marian Hollingsworth, a board member of the state's Healthcare Associated Infection Advisory Committee, filed a complaint with the California Department of Public Health wherein she mandated that the public should be informed.
"I'm a mom of four. I'd be outraged if no one told me," Hollingsworth told CBS. "I think hospitals have a lot to learn yet about infection control, and everyone needs to be on it to help prevent it."
In a statistic released by the government, 26 percent of the infants infected by MRSA in ICUs die. There were limited resources in terms of treatment as health care providers have yet to come up with a specific strain that can combat the virus.
Daptomycin is one of the drugs that can cure MRSA, but it can only cure a third of the patients affected by the superbug. Experts are coming up with ways to eliminate the virus after they found out that the superbug released a decoy molecule that makes them antibiotic-resistant.
MRSA made rounds as it starts to affect thousands of children worldwide, according to WebMD. The infection could potentially be treated with a certain antibiotic, however, it is not a guaranteed cure for all.
