Roughly 100 patients treated with the scopes at nearly 40 VA centers between 2010 and 2015 tested positive for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae. Officials say they can’t rule out the possibility that the devices may have been a factor in at least a dozen of those cases, though the likelihood is very low.
Additionally, VA officials conducted an analysis of more than 40,000 patient records and reported they found no widespread evidence of a problem, concluding that “any transmission appears highly unlikely,” according to the report.
The investigation results were released in response to a public-records request by The Seattle Times.
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