Margarida Mota, responsible for the anti-microbial treatment of the patients with Klebsiella Pneumoniae in Gaia hospital said that this was why “faced with a positive patient, it is best to consider them positive for the rest of their lives”.


Relatives of carriers who have returned home have been advised “always to wash their hands after coming into contact with the patient”, and the “patient is told to wash their hands whenever they go to the toilet and whenever washing themselves”.


Gaia hospital identified 30 patients carrying the multi-resistant bacteria, eight of whom have died, without the cause being directly attributed to the infection and nine have been released.


The hospital said it was highly likely that the bacteria developed as a “side effect of antibiotic treatment” given to the first patient how had been hospitalised about 50 days ago and who had “taken various cycles of antibiotics”.