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Hard-to-clean endoscope linked to outbreak in Los Angeles
By
BetsyMcKay
ThomasM. Burton
The Food and Drug Administration warned Thursday that a type of endoscope linked to a superbug outbreak in Los Angeles is difficult to clean properly, making it possible for deadly bacteria to be transmitted to patients.
The agency issued an alert after the University of California, Los Angeles, Health System reported on Wednesday seven patients who had undergone procedures with such devices had been infected with drug-resistant bacteria known as carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae, or CRE. Two of those patients died, and the so-called “nightmare bacteria” may have contributed to their deaths, UCLA said. Another 179 were notified that they may have been exposed.
No new cases were reported Thursday, according to a UCLA spokeswoman. It isn’t known how deadly the type of CRE causing the outbreak is, but it is treatable with some types of antibiotics, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is consulting in the investigation.
The patients at UCLA underwent medical procedures between October and January using a duodenoscope, a specialized tubular device that is threaded down the throat into the top of the small intestine. The device, also called an endoscope, is used to drain fluids from pancreatic and bile ducts blocked by cancerous tumors, gallstones or other conditions, according to the FDA.
Doctors said problems cleaning the devices due to their complex design have been known for years. On Thursday, the FDA alerted health-care professionals to the cleaning and sterilizing problem, and said some that have been cleaned according to the manufacturers’ instructions have still been involved in cases or outbreaks of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections.
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