UCLA. US: The UCLA Health System notified 179 patients on Feb. 18 that they may
have been exposed last fall to the carbapenem-resistant
enterobacteriaceae (CRE) bacteria during an endoscopic procedure to
diagnose and treat diseases of the liver, bile ducts and pancreas at
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. A total of seven patients were
infected; the infection was a contributing factor in the death of two
patients.
Only patients who underwent these
endoscopic procedures from Oct. 3, 2014, to Jan. 28, 2015, are at risk
of infection. Those patients are being offered a free home testing kit
for analysis at UCLA to determine if they carry the bacteria in their
intestines.
UCLA followed both national
guidelines and the sterilization standards stipulated by Olympus Medical
Systems Group, the instrument’s manufacturer. However, an internal
investigation determined in late January that CRE may have been
transmitted by two of the seven Olympus scopes used by the hospital
during the four-month period.
UCLA immediately began reviewing
every patient record to determine which patients underwent the procedure
using this type of scope between October and January. In an abundance
of caution, the hospital has notified all 179 patients who were examined
with one of the seven instruments during that time.
The two infected scopes were
immediately removed from use for return to Olympus. UCLA currently
performs a more stringent decontamination process that exceeds both the
manufacturer’s standards and FDA-approved manufacturer’s guidelines.
Hospital staff thoroughly clean the instrument and place it in an
automated machine for disinfection. Then the instrument is sent off-site
for a second sterilization process using a gas called ethylene oxide.
The Los Angeles County Department
of Health and California Department of Public Health were notified as
soon as the outbreak was detected. CRE exposures using the same type of
scope have been reported in other U.S. hospitals. Concerned patients may
contact their primary care physician or UCLA’s clinical epidemiology
and infection prevention department at 310-794-0189.