Gastrointestinal illness outbreak at Penticton Regional Hospital

PENTICTON – There has been an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness at Penticton Regional Hospital and Interior Health officials are taking the necessary precautions to stop its spread.

The Medical South unit at the hospital has been closed to new admissions and transfers following an gastrointestinal illness outbreak.

Penticton Regional Hospital health service director Deb Runge says in an email the unit was closed after a number of patients presented the common symptoms gastrointestinal illness in the past few days.

“In order to prevent the further spread of illness, we are limiting the activities of patients in the unit and have implemented enhanced housekeeping and cleaning practices,” Runge says.

Outbreaks of influenza and gastrointestinal illness are not uncommon this time of year at hospitals and other Interior Health Authority care facilities.

Runge says visitors are being advised of the outbreak and asked to visit only if essential.

“We know it is important for patients to have support from friends and family while they are in hospital recovering," Runge says in the email. "Anyone who chooses to visit someone in the Medical South unit will be advised of proper infection control practices and will be asked to adhere to them."

Interior Health posts a list of current outbreaks at all its facilities on their website.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad or call 250-488-3065 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.