INFECTIONS TAKE AT LEAST 51 LIVES AT PANAMA HOSPITAL

The so-called "nosocomial" infections have prompted two of the Central American gateway nation's largest medical associations to briefly suspend the treatment of patients at the vast, 1,321-bed Arnulfo Arias Madrid Hospital in Panama City, and a hospital physician has charged its director with "wrongful death" for not doing more to control the infections when informed about them.

According to a trusted source in Panama, the infections are the result of substandard conditions at the Metropolitan Hospital Complex, including a lack of hygiene and overcrowding at the hospital, which serves hundreds of thousands of the poorest Panamanians each year...