![\"Stock](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1_Royal-Hospitals-04_JK.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe first case was identified on April 28 and an outbreak declared two days later<\/p>\n
12:31, 13 May 2026Updated 12:37, 13 May 2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The infection was first identified at the Royal Victoria Hospital last month(Image: Justin Kernoghan\/Belfast Live)<\/p>\n
A hospital in Northern Ireland is managing the outbreak of an antibiotic-resistant infection.<\/p>\n
The Belfast Trust have confirmed that they are working with the Public Health Agency to manage an outbreak of a Carbapenemase-Producing Organism (CPO) at the Royal Victoria Hospital<\/a>.<\/p>\n CPOs are highly resistant bacteria that produce enzymes capable of breaking down carbapenem antibiotics.<\/p>\n The infection is spread from person-to-person through contact with hands, medical equipment, or surfaces contaminated with the bacteria.<\/p>\n The first case was identified at the Royal Victoria Hospital<\/a> on April 28, and an outbreak was declared two days later.<\/p>\n A Belfast Trust<\/a> spokesperson said: “Belfast Trust is managing an outbreak of a Carbapenemase-Producing Organism (CPO) at the Royal Victoria Hospital with support from the Public Health Agency on infection, prevention and control guidance.<\/p>\n “A small number of patients within the Medical Specialities and Unscheduled Care Division have been identified as carrying a CPO.<\/p>\n “The first case of CPO was identified on 28 April 2026, and the outbreak was formally declared on 30 April 2026.<\/p>\n “Appropriate outbreak control measures, including enhanced cleaning of the ward, have been implemented in line with guidance from the Outbreak Control Group.<\/p>\n ” The Trust<\/a> is engaging with the families of all affected patients.<\/p>\n “There have been no reported fatalities or serious illness directly attributed to this specific CPO strain.”<\/p>\n For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here<\/a> and sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a> here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first case was identified on April 28 and an outbreak declared two days later 12:31, 13 May…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[9139,59,102,2213,16657,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-581762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-belfast-trust","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-public-health-agency","tag-royal-victoria-hospital","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}