Fourteen newborns have been infected with rotavirus -- a highly contagious disease common among infants -- at a Daegu hospital, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.

The outbreak was reported after newborn twins, who were discharged on Monday, were diagnosed with the disease on the same day and readmitted at the hospital.

At another medical facility, the twins underwent tests required for admission to a postpartum care center. There they were diagnosed with rotavirus infection and readmitted to the hospital where they were born. They had been asymptomatic before the diagnosis, authorities said.
 

The hospital tested 19 other newborns who shared the same neonatal care unit with them, and 12 were diagnosed with the infection.

In Korea, newborns are usually placed in a large neonatal care unit along with other newborns, away from their mothers.

It is not the first time a group of newborns have been infected while sharing a room. Last year, 118 newborns were infected with inactive tuberculosis at an obstetrics clinic in Seoul where a nurse, who had been unaware that she had tuberculosis, cared for the babies.

Rotavirus, which causes severe diarrhea among other symptoms, is transmitted between hand and mouth contact. 

(dyc@heraldcorp.com)