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 my homepage links to Longevity Report, Fractal Report, music, Inventors' report, an autobio and various other projects: http://www.geocities.com/longevityrpt http://www.autopsychoice.com - http://www.cryonics-europe.org - http://www.porthtowan.com Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18733