According to Fox News, a number of patients in Los Angeles last Wednesday have been infected by the "superbug", an antibiotic-resistant bug that already infected numerous people over the past year. Similarly, Food World News published an article on the discovery of a superbug last May.
Public health authorities were alerted last Wednesday when Huntington Memorial Hospital discovered that some patients were positive with the resistant pseudomonas bacteria after using duodenoscopes by Olympus Corp. According to L.A. Times, many forms of deadly bacteria can be trapped inside the reusable devices and can be transferred on to future patients. Federal regulators have attributed this to a design flaw that makes the tip of the instruments hard to clean even when following the manufacturer's guidelines. The hospital said that it has quarantined the scopes while they conduct further investigations.
There were already three cases that have been reported to local health officials last June. The hospital discovered this when they conducted a review of lab samples. The number can increase and can turn into an outbreak.
Dr. Paula Verette, senior vice president and chief medical officer for quality and physician services at Huntington Memorial said, "We are still investigating the potential link and have engaged two nationally renowned medical research facilities for assistance". She added that, "Even though the link between the scope and bacteria is not confirmed, we alerted the affected patients about a possible link as well as reported the bacterial growth to health officials". The hospital refused to close the total number of infected patients or their conditions citing medical privacy law.
Drug-resistant bacterial infections around the country have been linked to contamination of the reusable scopes. These are used for a procedure known as endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. The fiber-optic scopes are placed down a patient's throat and used to diagnose and treat gallstones, blockages and cancers of the digestive tract.
A dozen infections were reported earlier this year at Cedars-Sinai and UCLA's Ronald Reagan medical centers in Los Angeles. Three patients already died. Olympus is the market leader for duodenoscopes in the U.S., accounting for about 85 percent of sales, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
On Monday, the FDA posted a warning letter online that said Olympus waited three years to alert regulators to a cluster of 16 infections in patients who underwent procedures using the scope in 2012. The FDA also posted warning letters Monday to two other scope manufacturers citing problems with the testing, design, reporting and quality control of their devices.
