Queensland researchers are praising the potential of a powerful new method of tracking down superbug outbreaks, after stopping an outbreak in a southeast Queensland hospital’s neonatal unit before it started.

Routine testing in 2018 flagged that several babies in the hospital’s neonatal unit tested positive for a particularly nasty strain of Klebsiella oxytoca, which is often found in neonatal wards and is resistant to most common antibiotics given to babies.

Queensland researchers stopped a drug-resistant bacterial outbreak in a neonatal ward using genomic screening. Credit:File Photo

The babies had not yet become sick, but with every new contamination, the odds of a baby falling ill grew.

Patrick Harris is an infectious disease specialist with the University of Queensland’s Centre for Clinical Research, based at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.