Agape House closed its doors on Sunday as teams of medical personnel transferred patients to Gordon Ward after an outbreak of MRSA.

The infection, called Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), poses serious risks to the sickest of patients and last week the infection forced King Edward VII Memorial Hospital (KEMH) to quarantine Gordon Ward.

KEMH acting chief of staff Dr. Wilbert Warner said the outbreak was detected on Sunday and four patients from Agape House were moved to Gordon Ward. One patient went home, he said.

He also confirmed that a patient from Gordon Ward was transferred to Agape House about two weeks ago, only days before the MRSA strain was detected in Gordon Ward.

However, Dr. Warner was unable to say when Agape House -- a hospice for the terminally ill -- would reopen because the staff could transmit the disease to sensitive areas such as the Intensive Care Unit if the outbreak was not properly treated.

The staff are on workman's compensation leave and undergoing treatment while hospital staff "extensively'' clean Agape House -- a process called terminal cleaning.

"(When Agape re-opens) depends on how long it takes for terminal cleaning and when the staff are shown to be free of the organism,'' he said.

Infection control nurse Linda Rothwell told The Royal Gazette last week: "The sickest patients are more liable to get MRSA.'' A healthy person's immune system can usually overcome MRSA but for people that are already ill, serious infections and pneumonia can result if MRSA gets into their bodies.

The strain detected in Gordon Ward last week "has become resistant to antibiotics'', said Ms Rothwell.

"Antibiotic resistance should concern all of us,'' she added. And while the general public is not at risk, hand washing is essential to "try to prevent the spread of MRSA in the community''.

Dr. Warner dispelled fears that MRSA was a serious threat to the safety of the hospital.

He said everyone has the potential to carry MRSA but it was not a concern since large hospitals, such as John Hopkins in the US, are "colonised'' with MRSA.

Sometimes carriers are people who visit such large hospitals, or elderly people who simply forget to notify KEMH staff, he said.

"The organism is not endemic here,'' he said. "For the last ten years we have been trying to prevent it from establishing a foothold here.''