The serratia bacteria detected in six patients who died at a Tokyo hospital appear to be from the same strain, tests results showed Tuesday.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Research Laboratory of Public Health tested samples from Ito Neurosurgical Hospital in Setagaya Ward.
The metropolitan government and the Setagaya Ward Office were to discuss the results at a meeting Tuesday evening.
The local public health center is analyzing about 100 specimens taken from the hospital and people related to the hospital in an attempt to specify the source and path of infection.
The first patient developed a high fever Jan. 7 and by Jan. 10, nine patients were running high fevers. Six of them had died at the hospital by Jan. 15 and another died Jan. 16 after being transferred to a different treatment center.
The metropolitan government conducted three inspections between Wednesday and Monday.
On the third inspection, serratia bacteria was detected in a tube used for measuring oxygen concentration that had been used on a female patient. It then instructed the hospital to transfer all patients to another hospital.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and metropolitan government earlier said 12 patients were suspected to have been infected, but they later found that one of the infections was not caused by serratia.
Serratia bacteria, which live in human intestines and can be found in the air and on the palms of hands, rarely affect healthy people, but may cause inflammation of the bladder or the kidneys in people whose immune systems have been weakened through old age or surgery.