Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) is pushing for better hygiene in its wards after an increase in patients carrying an antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Of the 540 patients at the hospital last week, 21, or almost four per cent, were found to be asymptomatic carriers of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE).
A further 32, or almost six per cent, had been in contact with a VRE carrier patient and are being tested.
But the hospital said its wards were safe and dismissed recent media reports describing the bacteria as a superbug as inaccurate.
It says a superbug is a bacteria that is highly virulent and causes a high rate of infection, whereas the infection rate for the strain of VRE T-90 at the hospital is low.
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RPH executive director Frank Daly said he's "very concerned about the misguided and mischievous reporting by some journalists that is causing alarm in the community".
The hospital's switchboard lit up after one report, with family members of patients concerned for their loved ones.
VRE is mainly spread by hand contact or from shared medical equipment.
The hospital has now plastered its walls with posters calling on staff, visitors and patients to wash their hands regularly using antibacterial gel.
It says it has also stepped up cleaning of rooms and shared equipment, and is regularly swabbing patients to detect any new cases.
VRE does not harm healthy people but it can compromise the health of people whose immune system is run down, for instance, if they've just had surgery.
Dr Daly said an elderly patient who died this year was found to have had an infection caused by multiple organisms, one of which was VRE.
But they had a complex medical condition and their death was not directly related to the VRE infection, with other organisms more chiefly involved, he said.
The antibiotic vancomycin is considered "the last line of defence".
