An outbreak of Salmonella enteritidis in a maternity and neonatal intensive care unit

An outbreak of Salmonella enteritidis in a maternity and neonatal intensive care unit is described. The outbreak involved six babies and three mothers over a period of 23 days. The index case presented with premature labour with chorioamnionitis caused by S. enteritidis. There was no history of diarrhoea at the time of her admission of during her pregnancy. The absence of illness led to a delay in instituting standard isolation procedures until S. enteritidis had been isolated from the placenta four days after delivery. It appeared that the resuscitator in the labour ward operating theatre acted as a reservoir for the initial transmission with secondary person-to-person spread. Early introduction of universal infection control measures including handwashing and appropriate disinfection of equipment would have prevented the outbreak.