The Maasstad hospital in Rotterdam has been in the news since June last year after the outbreak of an antibiotic bacterium named Klebsiella Oxa-48 that has likely caused the death of 78 people.
Question arises on how this new bacterium could appear in the Netherlands.
Hospital bacteria are not a new phenomenon in the world. In a place where the use of antibiotics is widespread, the risk of resistant bacteria increases likewise. A hospital in the southern region of the Netherlands for example decided to close its Intensive Care Unit on recently after another bacteria, the so called MRSA , had been detected. This bacterium has become resistant for the most used antibiotics.
Thanks to a strict Dutch government policy in that regulates the use of antibiotics, only one percent of the patients are contaminated with this bacteria.
A crew form the Swiss public TV background program SRF Rundschau sends a reporter to the Netherlands that needs a camera crew.