Approximately NIS 2.5 billion (roughly $600,000) are needed to enable the health system in Israel cope with a deadly bacteria that has infected hundreds of patients in hospitals in the past year, according to Health Minister Yacov Ben-Yizri.
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| 48 carriers of super bug still in hospitals / Meital Yasur-Beit Or |
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Dozens still hospitalized with antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection, which had killed at least 120 as of Tuesday; health ministry to go on high alert |
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Ben Yizri met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Thursday to discuss the spread of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae, which has so far killed between 120 to 200 people.
The minister presented to Olmert the Health Ministry's budgetary demands for coping with the super bug. In order to prevent similar epidemics, 3,000 more beds must be added in hospitals across the country, and three new hospitals should be built by 2015, Ben Yizri said.
Furthermore, Ben Yizri asked for a supplement of NIS 260 million (roughly $30 million) over the next five years, in order to address the shortage of space and staff at NICUs, allow the supply of additional beds to ICUs and extra funding for other Ministry units.
According to estimates, the overall sum Ben Yizri has demanded stands at NIS 2.5 billion.
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