A FOURTH baby has been treated for a rare bacterial infection at the Princess Royal Maternity hospital in Glasgow that contributed to the death of two infants.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said a baby had tested positive for Staphylococcus aureus and the infection was treated and cleared but did not say when the case was detected.

The board announced at the end of January that two very premature babies had died in the hospital’s neonatal unit with the infection listed as one of the contributory causes. Another baby was also treated and four other babies were found to have the type 11164 strain on their skin but were not infected.

Staphyloccous aureus is the most common causes of hospital-acquired infections but the type which infected the babies has only been recorded in two other countries in the world.

Read more: Infection that led to baby deaths has never been seen before in Scotland 

It is highly resistant to the two antibiotics that are normally prescribed as well as the skin cleaning agent routinely used in hospitals across the UK.

The source of the infection has not yet been identified.

A spokesman for NHSGGC said: “A baby at the PRMH tested positive for Staphylococcus aureus and the infection was treated and cleared.

“No further patients have tested positive Staphylococcus aureus infection.”