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A California congressman wants answers from the Food and Drug Administration in the wake of superbug infections at a local hospital now linked to contaminated medical scopes.
John Allen, a gastroenterologist and the clinical chief of digestive diseases at Yale School of Medicine, said he witnessed the bacterial infections from the same type of intestinal medical scopes in Minnesota back in 1987, according to CNN.
Dr. John Allen, a gastroenterologist, had to morph into a detective when 10 of his patients came down with the exact same type of rare bacterial infection. Alarmed and mystified, he and his colleagues rushed to find the source of the highly lethal superbug.
The culprit, it turned out, was in his own office: a device called a duodenoscope used to check out tiny ducts in the intestinal tract.
The pseudomonas bacteria had somehow evaded the standard cleaning process, and it infected one patient after another.
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, called Monday for a congressional hearing on the potentially deadly “superbug” outbreaks that have been linked to contaminated medical scopes and caused at least seven infections, and two deaths, at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
At UCLA, health officials have notified 179 patients who underwent endoscopic procedures using duodenoscopes at the hospital between October and January that they may have been exposed to the bacteria known as CRE.
Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Manhattan Beach, called Monday for a congressional hearing on the potentially deadly “superbug” outbreaks that have been linked to contaminated medical scopes and caused at least seven infections, and two deaths, at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
At UCLA, health officials have notified 179 patients who underwent endoscopic procedures using duodenoscopes at the hospital between October and January that they may have been exposed to the bacteria known as CRE.
On Monday, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) sent a letter to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, urging Congress to investigate efforts by FDA and medical device manufacturers to prevent further deaths and infections related to a recent drug-resistant superbug outbreak in California, the Los Angeles Timesreports, (Terhune, Los Angeles Times, 2/23).
Background
Last week, UCLA's Ronald Reagan Medical Center began notifying 179 patients who may have been exposed to Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, from contaminated medical endoscopes.
Congress should launch an investigation into what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is doing to prevent additional superbug infections after a deadly outbreak at a Los Angeles hospital linked to tainted medical scopes, a lawmaker said Monday.
U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., sent a letter asking the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to hold a hearing on the issue, which he said "poses both health and national security risks." The committee oversees the FDA.
A U.S. lawmaker on Monday called on the Congress to investigate the medical scopes blamed for an outbreak of a bacterial "superbug" at a University of California, Los Angeles hospital that has infected seven patients.
Representative Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California, said in a letter asking for a congressional oversight committee hearing that the outbreak of the drug-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, bacteria posed "both health and national security" risks.
Today, Congressman Lieu sent a letter to Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform requesting a hearing on the multiple sterilization failures of a medical device known as the duodenoscope. Click here to view the full text of the letter.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), is calling on the House Oversight Committee to hold hearings on a "superbug" that has led to two deaths at a hospital in his district.
Lieu wrote in a letter to Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) that the "superbug" has "both health and national security risks."
Officials at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Los Angeles announced last week that a drug-resistant bacteria, known as CRE, had led to two deaths and that 179 people had potentially been exposed. At least seven people have been infected.
Prompted by the UCLA superbug outbreak, a federal lawmaker is calling on Congress to investigate what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and device makers are doing to prevent further patient deaths and infections.
In a letter sent Monday to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) said outbreaks related to contaminated medical scopes “have national security ramifications.”
Last week, UCLA's Ronald Reagan Medical Center became the latest in a string of U.S. hospitals suffering outbreaks involving CRE and other deadly bacteria.