X-Message-Number: 18733
From: "John de Rivaz" <>
Subject: Beware risks of invasive diagnosis
Date: Sat, 9 Mar 2002 10:36:05 -0000

The following from Infobeat may be of value:

>>>
Infection Risk a Recurring Problem for Lung Scopes

The airway instruments now embroiled in a messy recall over their infection
threat to patients have long been known to offer harmful bacteria a haven,
reports HealthScout News.

Experts say bronchoscopes, which doctors use to examine lungs and take
tissue samples from airways, pose a small but real risk of transferring
germs from one patient to another, despite the sterilizing steps used to
clean them.

The scopes are the focus of an investigation at Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore, which is trying to determine whether the devices were responsible
for infecting at least 100 patients with the Pseudomonas aeruginosa
bacteria. Two patients have died so far, said Gary Stephenson, a Hopkins
spokesman, and "there may be other deaths that we don't know about
presently."

Health officials have issued at least two reports since the early 1990s
notifying doctors of the problem. The alerts, from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, each stated that automated sterilizing gear failed
to completely destroy bacteria clinging to the instruments. The cleaning
machines themselves also housed colonies of dangerous germs.

Dr. Norman Edelman, a scientific consultant for the American Lung
Association, said inadequate cleaning of bronchoscopes "has been an issue"
in the past. "Good programs check whether the sterilization is effective,"
he added.
<<<

I know that may people throw their hands up in horror at the use of the word
"germs" but I refrained from changing it to "pathogens" in the above
article, which was after all professionally written. Everyone knows what it
means even if "there are no such things as germs".

--
Sincerely, John de Rivaz:      http://www.deRivaz.com  .
http://www.AlecHarleyReeves.com
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