Screening for source of superbug

Parents have been asked to return to the hospital for screening

The parents of 63 babies born at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital neo-natal unit are being contacted to help identify the source of a bacteria.

Seven babies have so far been infected by an outbreak of PVL which attacks white blood cells leaving the sufferer unable to fight infection.

One baby - a boy born prematurely to a couple from Dereham - died after contracting the PVL infection.

Seven sets of parents have still to be contacted.

Source unknown

Dr Mark Dyke, from the neo-natal unit, said they were working to trace all the families who have passed through the unit.

A hospital spokeswoman said all the affected babies were responding to treatment.

The 28-cot neonatal unit is currently closed to babies from outside the area, she added.

Experts stressed that Panton-Valentine Leukocidin is not the same bug as the PVL strain of the superbug MRSA, said to be responsible for the deaths of two patients at a North Midlands hospital.

The infection can be treated with some antibiotics but its source is not yet known.

However, PVL infections tend not to be hospital-based, and it is most likely to have been brought into the unit between 22 November and 19 December, hospital sources said.