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Wednesday, February 25, 2015

FDA Says It Knew Scopes That Allegedly Spread 'Superbug' Could Transmit Bacterial Infections

The revelation that contaminated endoscopes were cleaned according to manufacturer instructions but still allegedly caused seven people to become infected with a deadly drug-resistant bacteria has raised questions about whether the scopes are too difficult to clean.

Seven people have become infected with the drug-resistant "superbug" known as CRE at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after undergoing endoscopy procedures, and CRE may have played a role in two of its patients' deaths, hospital officials said Wednesday afternoon, adding that 179 people were exposed to the germ.

The scopes -- called duodenoscopes, which are inserted by mouth to access patients' small intestine, the pancreas and the liver -- were new and had only been in use since June, but they were cleaned in accordance with manufacturer guidelines, officials said yesterday. The hospital said they traced the bacteria back to two endoscopes manufactured by Olympus Corporation of the Americas.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Why does the FDA licence places like compound factories that have killed over 60 people in the past and are still operating under the radar. When medicine has advanced to the point of being outside the realm of safety ...it is time to STOP and recalculate. How many more people have to die before they figure out that this is not a safe practice. Bring on the law suits...that is the only thing that slows them down.