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 Infection by the carbapenem-resistant enterobacteria, or CRE,
during endoscopies at a large teaching hospital in the University of
California at Los Angeles system has contributed to two deaths among
the seven patients.
Officials warned that as many as 179 people who had endoscopies at
the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center may have been exposed to the
so-called superbug. The procedures were done between Oct. 3 and Jan.
28.
All five of the confirmed infected patients who remain alive are
under treatment, said UCLA spokeswoman Dale Tate.
The infections all occurred during procedures in which a specialized
scope, known as a duodenoscope, was inserted down the throat to
diagnose and treat pancreatic and bile duct diseases. The outbreak
has raised questions about whether methods for cleaning the
endoscopes were adequate.
The 18-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was among
those infected by CRE, said attorney Kevin Boyle, a member of his
legal team.
 The man went to the medical center in mid-2014 for a pancreatic
ailment and received an endoscopy, Boyle said. The man became ill
and was hospitalized a short time later.
By November, he had been diagnosed with CRE. The youth spent 83 days
in the hospital, mostly in the intensive care unit, the attorney
said.
"It's definitely a severe infection," he said, adding that the
infection had landed the young man back in a Los Angeles hospital.
The 18-year-old was not in the intensive care unit but was under
24-hour monitoring.
"The (man's) prognosis is unknown," Boyle said. He would not give
the name of the hospital where the young man is being treated.
Further details on the conditions of the five infected patients have
not been disclosed, and details on the circumstances of the two
deaths have not been made public.
Officials have said there is no broader threat to public health, and
that hospital officials have called and sent letters to at-risk
former patients. All of them are at home, rather than at a hospital,
Tate said. No further infections have been reported.
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Corey Egel, a spokesperson for the California Department of Public
Health, said the short-term risk window for additional CRE
infections among the patients who came into contact with the scopes
was over.
There remains, however, a possibility of future infections if the
organism was able to colonize inside any of the patients.
"Any person who is colonized with any multi-drug resistant organism
is at some increased risk in the future of developing an infection
with that organism," he said.
The medical center has said that it had been sterilizing the
duodenoscopes implicated in the infection, which it began using in
June, according to manufacturer standards. It has said it now uses a
more rigorous process that exceeds national standards.
The two infected scopes were immediately removed from use for return
to the manufacturer, Olympus Medical Systems Group. Olympus did not
immediately respond to requests for comment.
Hospitals across the United States have reported exposures from the
same type of medical equipment in recent years. The U.S. Food and
Drug Administration has said it was working with other government
agencies and scope manufacturers to minimize risks to patients.
California's public health department said no other hospitals in the
state have seen a similar outbreak.
(Additional reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by
Jonathan Oatis and Nick Macfie)
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