Nursing home in lockdown after four dead in flu outbreak
A nursing home on the NSW South Coast has been placed in lockdown over a flu outbreak.
The Marco Polo Aged Care Services at Unanderra, southwest of Wollongong, has been placed in lockdown after 15 residents came down with the virus in the past three weeks, Nine News reports.
Four people have died in that time.
The nursing home has been in lockdown for four weeks, 7News reported.
A NSW Health spokesperson told Yahoo News in a statement that the Illawarra Public Health Unit has been assisting the nursing home to respond to an influenza outbreak.
“A routine part of influenza outbreak control is closure of facilities to new admissions,” the spokesperson said.
“During this outbreak four residents have died, all very elderly with underlying health problems. Influenza was not cited as a cause of death for any of the residents.”
NSW Health Director of Communicable Disease, Dr Vicky Sheppeard, last week said that so far this year, there have been 87 confirmed influenza outbreaks in aged-care facilities, 12 of which were reported last week.
"The elderly are highly vulnerable to influenza and the flu jab is critical to reducing the risk of visitors catching the virus and bringing it into aged-care homes," Dr Sheppeard said.
Marco Polo Aged Care Services manager Robert O’Shae told the ABC families are being told not to visit the facility.
"We are managing this in consultation with the public health unit, which we are required to do," Mr O'Shae said.
"The public health unit has authorised the allocation of Tamiflu shots … we contacted relatives and got their approval to administer that drug."
Mr O’Shae confirmed the three deaths to the Daily Telegraph but added “their diagnosis post passing away has not been confirmed to us as yet”.
It’s expected the lockdown will be lifted by Friday, meaning visitors will again be able to visit residents.
Marco Polo Aged Care Services has been contacted for comment.
With AAP
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