Scopes That Spread UCLA ‘Superbug’ Were Awaiting FDA Clearance
The manufacturer of the scopes that spread a drug-resistant “superbug” to seven California patients had tweaked the scopes' design and was selling them without federal permission to do so, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Seven people have become infected with the drug-resistant “superbug” known as CRE at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after undergoing endoscopy procedures, and CRE may have played a role in two of those patients' deaths, hospital officials said in February, adding that 179 people were exposed to the germ at UCLA. The scopes — called duodenoscopes, which are inserted by mouth to access patients' small intestine, the pancreas and the liver — were new and had only been in use since June, health officials said last month. The hospital said it traced the bacteria back to two endoscopes manufactured by Olympus Corporation of the Americas.