Authorities in the US and Mexico have asked the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency of international concern over a deadly fungal outbreak, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official said Friday. The request comes after recruiters lured hundreds of patients from several countries and 24 US states to two facilities in Mexico for cosmetic operations that may have exposed them to the fungus.
The CDC is currently monitoring the status of 195 people in the United States who received surgeries epidural anesthesia at the now-closed River Side Surgical Center and K-3 Clinic in Mexico.
Fourteen are “suspected” and 11 are “probable” cases. fungal meningitis — brain or spinal cord infections — based on your symptoms or test results. Two of these patients have died. Six potential cases have been ruled out since the CDC’s last update on Wednesday.
Most reported headaches before their infections worsened, progressing to symptoms such as fever, vomiting, sore throat and blurred vision. The CDC warns that meningitis can quickly become life-threatening once symptoms begin.
Recent test results from Mexican authorities have raised concerns about a repeat of another deadly outbreak that was linked to surgeries elsewhere in Mexico earlier this year. In this outbreak, nearly half of all patients diagnosed with meningitis died.
A WHO committee it should first be called before the agency’s director general declares an international emergency. Although countries must notify the WHO of all potential emergencies, not all end up reaching this stage.
“[We] they receive hundreds of events every day and evaluate each one,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Ann Haris said in an email.
She declined to confirm whether that notification had come from the US, saying communications with member states are confidential.
A spokesman for the US Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment.
authorities they have urged Americans who had epidural surgeries at any of these clinics since January to go immediately to the emergency room or an urgent care center, even if they don’t currently think they have symptoms.
People from 24 states as far north as Alaska were potentially exposed during surgeries at one of the two clinics, according to a list provided by Mexican authorities to the CDC. The vast majority, 178, are Texas residents.
Most patients with symptoms have been female so far, although a probable male case with meningitis symptoms has also been identified.
One of the two patients who died was also an organ donor, with five different recipients nationwide earlier this year potentially at risk.
“They have all been notified and are being evaluated, and we were working with transplant centers and other partners to properly manage these patients who had these organs transplanted into their bodies,” said Dallas Smith of the CDC. webinar Friday by the Mycosis Study Group.
The consortium has been working with the CDC guidance for doctors treat patients who may have been infected by the procedures.
“Since patients from Mexico, the United States, Canada, and Colombia were on the exposed list, we wanted to make sure those countries were aware and provide that situational awareness, through a public health emergency of ‘international interest,’ said Smith.
“Concerned about a high death rate”
Investigators now believe the two facilities, located near the Mexican-Texas border, had attracted patients from across America for surgical procedures.
“There are these agents that act as patient recruiters in the United States, they link American patients to these clinics to get certain care and certain procedures like cosmetic procedures,” Smith said.
Based on in-depth interviews with a handful of patients, officials believe many had sought operations such as liposuction, breast augmentation or Brazilian butt lifts.
Authorities have not yet confirmed the cause of the outbreak. Results from American patients have so far been inconclusive in locating the fungus.
However, tests in Mexico have returned positive results for a fungus known as Fusarium solani in spinal fluid samples. This same type of fungus was seen in a deadly outbreak that began late last year in the Mexican state of Durango and was also linked to surgeries.
“We’re not sure if these two outbreaks are related, but the fact that the same organism is most likely causing this fungal meningitis makes us concerned about a high mortality rate. That’s why it’s so important for patients to come in early, even if you’re asymptomatic,” Smith said.
Medications used during anesthesia in the current outbreak may have been contaminated, Smith said, either in the epidural itself or in other medications added together during surgeries such as morphine.
“There is currently a shortage in Mexico and there could be the potential for a black market that could have contaminated the medicine,” Smith said.
Another theory is that there were lapses in infection control practices to prevent contamination during surgery, which is currently blamed for the other outbreak.
“The outbreak that we’re experiencing now is quite similar and has the ability to have this high mortality rate and just devastate families and communities,” Smith said.
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Alexandre Tin
