{"id":621503,"date":"2026-09-11T14:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T14:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/621503\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T14:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T14:54:11","slug":"bouncy-castle-play-linked-to-largest-outbreak-of-common-superbug-in-ireland-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/621503\/","title":{"rendered":"Bouncy castle play linked to largest outbreak of common superbug in Ireland \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Playing on bouncy castles has been linked to the largest ever recorded outbreak of a common superbug in Ireland last year.<\/p>\n

A new medical report found four children were hospitalised after an outbreak of a rare and aggressive strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus \u2013 better known as MRSA \u2013 swept through a large group who had been playing on bouncy castles.<\/p>\n

The study detailed how 48 children and adolescents developed skin and soft tissue infections after a gathering in the east of Ireland, including 15 who sought hospital treatment.<\/p>\n

Doctors claim it is the first time that a large outbreak of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria has been linked to playing on bouncy castles as the mechanism had \u201cnot been described before in the scientific literature\u201d.<\/p>\n

While outbreaks of community-acquired MRSA are associated with close physical contact and crowded settings, most large outbreaks occur in sporting activities, prisons and childcare facilities.<\/p>\n

The report concluded the outbreak occurred due to close physical contact among children and adolescents playing on three bouncy castles on a green area in a suburb in the HSE Dublin and Midlands region last autumn.<\/p>\n

Conditions on the day were humid, warm and showery with parents recalling the children were noticeably wet and engaging in \u201crough-and-tumble\u201d play on crowded bouncy castles.<\/p>\n

All but one of the 48 patients had attended the event with many spending a substantial amount of time on the bouncy castles, including 19 who estimated they had spent at least four hours on the equipment.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0MRSA case study: \u2018I was on fire. The pain was intolerable\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The first case was a 12-year-old boy who was diagnosed with MRSA folliculitis \u2013 an infection of hair follicles that causes small red pimples filled with pus \u2013 and required hospitalisation.<\/p>\n

He provided a history of having attended a social gathering nine days earlier.<\/p>\n

The report \u2013 published in Eurosurveillance, a medical journal on infectious diseases \u2013 noted an outbreak control team was urgently convened when doctors subsequently became aware of the outbreak after a cluster of 25 other children who had attended the same event sought treatment with unusual skin infections.<\/p>\n

The control team involved doctors from various areas of the HSE as well as the National MRSA Reference Laboratory and Children\u2019s Health Ireland at Crumlin.<\/p>\n

The event organiser helped doctors to identify families who had attended the gathering with each family being contacted and provided with a risk assessment to determine if they had developed symptoms of skin infection.<\/p>\n

None of the four children who were admitted to hospital experienced severe outcomes or required intensive care, although they had an average stay of four days.<\/p>\n

\"Methicillin-resistantMethicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterium responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans <\/p>\n

Patients were treated with antibiotics, body wash and a nasal ointment, while they were also advised to stay away from cr\u00e8ches and schools until their acute symptoms were fully resolved.<\/p>\n

A local primary school where most of the cases attended was also issued with advice on infection prevention and control measures.<\/p>\n

The outbreaks comprised 22 confirmed and 26 possible cases involving children aged between five and 16 with an average of 12 years.<\/p>\n

The infections most commonly appeared as spots, redness and blisters on the children\u2019s legs.<\/p>\n

Twelve patients also reported suffering either fever, nausea or vomiting.<\/p>\n

The majority of cases developed symptoms two days after the party, although one only developed them 17 days later.<\/p>\n

One of the report\u2019s main authors, Domhnall McGlacken-Byrne, said it was \u201can unusual and complex community outbreak\u201d with bouncy castle play being \u201ca novel mechanism for an outbreak of this size\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dr McGlacken-Byrne, who is with the HSE\u2019s Department of Public Health, said the strain of MRSA in the outbreak had not previously been linked to an outbreak in either a healthcare setting or in the community in Ireland.<\/p>\n

He said it was also notable for a high attack rate and relatively short period of incubation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Playing on bouncy castles has been linked to the largest ever recorded outbreak of a common superbug in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[76750,2120,61,60,43,11760,14240],"class_list":["post-621503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-children-s-health","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-parents","tag-superbugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}