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Source: https://massinformacion.com.mx/2023/11/11/alerta-por-meningitis-en-hospitales-privados-en-mexico/
Alert for meningitis in private hospitals in Mexico
By Katya González
by @MORE INFORMATIONNovember 11, 20234:50 pm
Saltillo, Coahuila, MORE. – Since November 2022, meningitis has been under the scrutiny of Health organizations and agencies in Mexico and the world after an outbreak claimed the lives of 41 people who had undergone surgery in private hospitals in Durango.
Similar cases occurred in Tamaulipas last May, when at least 23 people underwent cosmetic surgery in private hospitals in the city of Matamoros. Days later they began to show symptoms, and at least three people died from meningitis.
Likewise, recently a person originally from Saltillo underwent surgery for a gallbladder problem at a private hospital in the city. Days later he had difficulty breathing and later died due to meningitis.
Although health authorities reported that these are three different types of meningitis, the pattern in all cases has been the same: people who put their health and lives in the hands of private hospitals and lose their lives days later.
The beginning of the outbreak- Durango.
On November 1, 2022, seven cases of meningitis were detected, that same day one person died. The numbers were increasing rapidly and worryingly, in cases and deaths resulting from the strange condition. As of November 16, seven deaths and 51 infections had already been recorded.
Until July 2023, 80 infected people and 41 deaths were reported, mostly women, who had undergone a surgical procedure, especially obstetric, in four private hospitals in Durango.
In the Santé hospital four people died due to meningitis, in the San Carlos there was only one death and in the Dickava no deaths were recorded, although there were infections.
As for the Parque Hospital, it is considered 'ground zero', since most of the deaths and infections occurred there (62 infections).
The cause of the disease was Fusarium solani, a fungus that is normally found on plants, although this time it appeared in four batches of bupivacaine, a local anesthetic used in cesarean sections and other short operations, which explains why the vast majority of those affected are women. youths.
Aseptic meningitis was the cause of death. According to the health authorities, this was derived from a fungus that affects the layers of the brain, being an infection in the central nervous system that generates some complications in this case bleeding, which is the most severe, however, the main symptom of This disease is intense headache (headache). In addition, it was also clarified that it is not contagious through contact with the patient.
Meningitis usually occurs through direct contact with another infected person, and in its most common form it is transmitted by a virus. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have closely monitored the outbreak.
After an extensive investigation, the Prosecutor's Office indicated that the medication causing the disease was not adulterated from its origin. Pisa, the pharmaceutical company that produces it, distributes it throughout the continent, but then there were only cases in Durango.
Instead, the Public Ministry maintained that it was poor management in hospitals and the fact that medical centers allowed foreign drugs to be brought in without proper quality control, which caused the infection.
Tamaulipas
In May 2023, Tamaulipas began to spread cases of meningitis. Local authorities confirmed at least 23 infections: 9 Americans and 14 Mexicans.
Both Mexican and American authorities pointed to a contaminated anesthetic as the origin of the meningitis outbreak in two private clinics in the city of Matamoros, specialized in cosmetic surgery operations and closed since May 14.
The authorities indicated that the infections occurred in patients who underwent “neuraxial blockage due to surgical procedures,” just as in Durango.
At the beginning of July, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began tracking the cases.
At that time, they evaluated 34 cases of fungal meningitis linked to the two clinics, with 9 confirmed cases, 10 probable and 15 suspicious, in addition to 7 people who died.
All cases were linked to the River Side Surgical Center and the K-3 Clinic in Matamoros, where Americans traveled to undergo cosmetic procedures, according to United States health authorities.
Coahuila
At the end of November 2022, health authorities in Coahuila confirmed the registration of two cases of aseptic meningitis, in clinic number 6 based in Torreón.
The patients were two young women from the municipality of Gómez Palacio. Upon reporting their health status as serious, they were transferred to the IMSS High Specialty Clinic.
In August 2023, the Ministry of Health reported three people under the age of 30 with meningitis at the Salvador Chavarría General Hospital in Piedras Negras, of which two had a drug addiction and one more was an inmate at the Penitentiary Center of the city.
Until August of this year, the death of one of the patients was reported, and the presence of meningococci was ruled out through tests performed on the cerebrospinal fluid.
Given this, a review of the health centers in the region was carried out, in order to find out if there were other cases, about which no information was obtained about another person with this same condition.
This was until a few weeks ago, when the ISSSTE medical unit in Saltillo reported the death of a young man due to meningitis.
The hospital administrators determined the cause of death as tuberculous meningitis caused by the tuberculosis bacteria, thus registering the first case in the last 4 years.
The victim was a 25-year-old young man who underwent surgery at the Santa Teresa clinic for gallbladder problems.
According to Hilda Luna and Rosana Flores, director and deputy director of the hospital, days later, the young man went to the private hospital again complaining of difficulty breathing. At the scene, fluid was detected in his lungs, so a tube was installed to drain it.
It was then when he went to the emergency room of the ISSSTE medical unit where he was admitted for care and study. Six days later, the patient began to present neurological deterioration and 15 days after surgery he died.
The doctors pointed out that, after analyzing the cerebrospinal fluid, the hospital determined the cause of death as tuberculous meningitis, caused by miliary tuberculosis, which is a variant of the potentially lethal disease that occurs when a large number of bacteria move to the body. through the blood and spread throughout the body. The tuberculous meningitis in which he developed was caused by the spread of the bacteria to the brain and spine from the lungs.
The doctors asserted that the young man did not show signs of malpractice on the part of the doctors at the private clinic, however, they are unaware of the treatments and care given to him in the previous days, since the medical report was not given to them, the which was requested on several occasions.
In this regard, this media outlet attempted to contact the Santa Teresa clinic, who refused to give an interview to clarify the facts.
Likewise, before its publication, the reporter contacted the local health authorities who indicated that they were not aware of the case: both the state Health Secretariat and the Saltillo Health Directorate reported that they were unaware of the facts.
Subsequently, the Secretary of Health of Coahuila, Roberto Bernal Gómez, indicated that the agency would carry out the relevant investigations to rule out an outbreak like the one that occurred in previous months in other states.
Likewise, he minimized the facts by explaining that the incidence of cases does not represent an alert, from an epidemiological point of view, since it is a normal annual figure.
“There will always be meningitis, but it is not the one you are thinking about, the one that happened in Durango. “It is being investigated, but I don't think it will be,” the official said.
Given this, the population is awaiting the result of the investigation by the state agency, in order to rule out or confirm a relationship with the cases registered in Durango and Tamaulipas.
In this regard, the Mexican Association of Infectology and Clinical Microbiology A.C. considered that the meningitis outbreaks registered in Tamaulipas have similarities with the one that occurred in Durango so they could have a common origin. In addition, the association highlighted the high related mortality, difficulty in diagnosing and treating patients with meningitis.
Likewise, the World Health Organization maintained that it is very rare for fungal meningitis to appear after medical or surgical intervention.
The common fact among the cases documented by MORE are the surgical interventions in private hospitals with the same result: the death of the patients.
As a result of the cases presented in the last year, the key question is whether the diagnosis that was made then in Durango, which was based on the premise that the cases were isolated, is still valid.
Furthermore, currently, it has not been revealed to which pharmaceutical company the alleged adulterated anesthetics from Matamoros belonged and the procedures performed on the patient by the private clinic in Saltillo are unknown.
Alert for meningitis in private hospitals in Mexico
By Katya González
by @MORE INFORMATIONNovember 11, 20234:50 pm
Saltillo, Coahuila, MORE. – Since November 2022, meningitis has been under the scrutiny of Health organizations and agencies in Mexico and the world after an outbreak claimed the lives of 41 people who had undergone surgery in private hospitals in Durango.
Similar cases occurred in Tamaulipas last May, when at least 23 people underwent cosmetic surgery in private hospitals in the city of Matamoros. Days later they began to show symptoms, and at least three people died from meningitis.
Likewise, recently a person originally from Saltillo underwent surgery for a gallbladder problem at a private hospital in the city. Days later he had difficulty breathing and later died due to meningitis.
Although health authorities reported that these are three different types of meningitis, the pattern in all cases has been the same: people who put their health and lives in the hands of private hospitals and lose their lives days later.
The beginning of the outbreak- Durango.
On November 1, 2022, seven cases of meningitis were detected, that same day one person died. The numbers were increasing rapidly and worryingly, in cases and deaths resulting from the strange condition. As of November 16, seven deaths and 51 infections had already been recorded.
Until July 2023, 80 infected people and 41 deaths were reported, mostly women, who had undergone a surgical procedure, especially obstetric, in four private hospitals in Durango.
In the Santé hospital four people died due to meningitis, in the San Carlos there was only one death and in the Dickava no deaths were recorded, although there were infections.
As for the Parque Hospital, it is considered 'ground zero', since most of the deaths and infections occurred there (62 infections).
The cause of the disease was Fusarium solani, a fungus that is normally found on plants, although this time it appeared in four batches of bupivacaine, a local anesthetic used in cesarean sections and other short operations, which explains why the vast majority of those affected are women. youths.
Aseptic meningitis was the cause of death. According to the health authorities, this was derived from a fungus that affects the layers of the brain, being an infection in the central nervous system that generates some complications in this case bleeding, which is the most severe, however, the main symptom of This disease is intense headache (headache). In addition, it was also clarified that it is not contagious through contact with the patient.
Meningitis usually occurs through direct contact with another infected person, and in its most common form it is transmitted by a virus. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have closely monitored the outbreak.
After an extensive investigation, the Prosecutor's Office indicated that the medication causing the disease was not adulterated from its origin. Pisa, the pharmaceutical company that produces it, distributes it throughout the continent, but then there were only cases in Durango.
Instead, the Public Ministry maintained that it was poor management in hospitals and the fact that medical centers allowed foreign drugs to be brought in without proper quality control, which caused the infection.
Tamaulipas
In May 2023, Tamaulipas began to spread cases of meningitis. Local authorities confirmed at least 23 infections: 9 Americans and 14 Mexicans.
Both Mexican and American authorities pointed to a contaminated anesthetic as the origin of the meningitis outbreak in two private clinics in the city of Matamoros, specialized in cosmetic surgery operations and closed since May 14.
The authorities indicated that the infections occurred in patients who underwent “neuraxial blockage due to surgical procedures,” just as in Durango.
At the beginning of July, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began tracking the cases.
At that time, they evaluated 34 cases of fungal meningitis linked to the two clinics, with 9 confirmed cases, 10 probable and 15 suspicious, in addition to 7 people who died.
All cases were linked to the River Side Surgical Center and the K-3 Clinic in Matamoros, where Americans traveled to undergo cosmetic procedures, according to United States health authorities.
Coahuila
At the end of November 2022, health authorities in Coahuila confirmed the registration of two cases of aseptic meningitis, in clinic number 6 based in Torreón.
The patients were two young women from the municipality of Gómez Palacio. Upon reporting their health status as serious, they were transferred to the IMSS High Specialty Clinic.
In August 2023, the Ministry of Health reported three people under the age of 30 with meningitis at the Salvador Chavarría General Hospital in Piedras Negras, of which two had a drug addiction and one more was an inmate at the Penitentiary Center of the city.
Until August of this year, the death of one of the patients was reported, and the presence of meningococci was ruled out through tests performed on the cerebrospinal fluid.
Given this, a review of the health centers in the region was carried out, in order to find out if there were other cases, about which no information was obtained about another person with this same condition.
This was until a few weeks ago, when the ISSSTE medical unit in Saltillo reported the death of a young man due to meningitis.
The hospital administrators determined the cause of death as tuberculous meningitis caused by the tuberculosis bacteria, thus registering the first case in the last 4 years.
The victim was a 25-year-old young man who underwent surgery at the Santa Teresa clinic for gallbladder problems.
According to Hilda Luna and Rosana Flores, director and deputy director of the hospital, days later, the young man went to the private hospital again complaining of difficulty breathing. At the scene, fluid was detected in his lungs, so a tube was installed to drain it.
It was then when he went to the emergency room of the ISSSTE medical unit where he was admitted for care and study. Six days later, the patient began to present neurological deterioration and 15 days after surgery he died.
The doctors pointed out that, after analyzing the cerebrospinal fluid, the hospital determined the cause of death as tuberculous meningitis, caused by miliary tuberculosis, which is a variant of the potentially lethal disease that occurs when a large number of bacteria move to the body. through the blood and spread throughout the body. The tuberculous meningitis in which he developed was caused by the spread of the bacteria to the brain and spine from the lungs.
The doctors asserted that the young man did not show signs of malpractice on the part of the doctors at the private clinic, however, they are unaware of the treatments and care given to him in the previous days, since the medical report was not given to them, the which was requested on several occasions.
In this regard, this media outlet attempted to contact the Santa Teresa clinic, who refused to give an interview to clarify the facts.
Likewise, before its publication, the reporter contacted the local health authorities who indicated that they were not aware of the case: both the state Health Secretariat and the Saltillo Health Directorate reported that they were unaware of the facts.
Subsequently, the Secretary of Health of Coahuila, Roberto Bernal Gómez, indicated that the agency would carry out the relevant investigations to rule out an outbreak like the one that occurred in previous months in other states.
Likewise, he minimized the facts by explaining that the incidence of cases does not represent an alert, from an epidemiological point of view, since it is a normal annual figure.
“There will always be meningitis, but it is not the one you are thinking about, the one that happened in Durango. “It is being investigated, but I don't think it will be,” the official said.
Given this, the population is awaiting the result of the investigation by the state agency, in order to rule out or confirm a relationship with the cases registered in Durango and Tamaulipas.
In this regard, the Mexican Association of Infectology and Clinical Microbiology A.C. considered that the meningitis outbreaks registered in Tamaulipas have similarities with the one that occurred in Durango so they could have a common origin. In addition, the association highlighted the high related mortality, difficulty in diagnosing and treating patients with meningitis.
Likewise, the World Health Organization maintained that it is very rare for fungal meningitis to appear after medical or surgical intervention.
The common fact among the cases documented by MORE are the surgical interventions in private hospitals with the same result: the death of the patients.
As a result of the cases presented in the last year, the key question is whether the diagnosis that was made then in Durango, which was based on the premise that the cases were isolated, is still valid.
Furthermore, currently, it has not been revealed to which pharmaceutical company the alleged adulterated anesthetics from Matamoros belonged and the procedures performed on the patient by the private clinic in Saltillo are unknown.
