Monash Medical Centre discovers black mould in area where cancer patients treated
Monash Health told the ABC the mould was detected in bathrooms of two adjoining wards at the Monash Medical Centre in Clayton in June, and was caused by a leak in a wall.
The ABC understands the mould affected the haematology ward, where patients with blood disorders such as leukaemia are cared for.
"To protect patients and staff, we have installed hoarding across the affected areas to prevent access during the repair works," the health body said in a statement.
Hoarding is a type of temporary fencing.
"In addition, patients have been moved into a different area of the ward, away from the affected space and repair works."
Monash Health said it had provided vulnerable patients with anti-fungal medication.
"As a standard of care, we routinely provide immunosuppressed patients with precautionary anti-yeast or anti-mould prophylaxis medication, due to their clinical risk determined by their underlying disease and intensity of treatment," it said.
"This practice remains ongoing to protect our patients."
It said the hospital had not seen a rise in fungal infections in patients in the affected area.
University of Adelaide pharmacologist and toxicologist Dr Ian Musgrave said mould outbreaks could be a serious problem for hospitals.
"The problem with hospitals is they have lots of areas where there are good for mould to grow and mould is really hard to get rid of," he said.
He explained that mould doesn't just sit on the surface of an area but gets into the very material it has attached to.
"It goes into the plasterboard, into the grouting between the surfaces, you have the spores there," he said.
"It will be very difficult to get out because the spores are designed to be resistant to attack — it is how the mould survives."
In bathrooms, he said this could mean showers and other structural elements needed to be removed to get to the source of the mould outbreak.
He said the hospital had done the right thing by moving patients away from the mould outbreak, closing the area off and starting remediation work.
And while Dr Musgrave said some people in their homes might be happy to simply clean mould away from a surface whenever an outbreak returns, in a hospital an outbreak was far more serious.
The ABC has contacted the Australian Medical Association for comment.
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