By NewsDesk @infectiousdiseasenews
In a follow-up to reports earlier this year (HERE and HERE), California health officials issued a health advisory today alerting healthcare providers to the ongoing risk of highly drug-resistant infections in patients following hospitalization or invasive procedures in Tijuana, Mexico, not limited to medical tourism.
A previous outbreak of surgical site infections with VIM-producing carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (VIM-CRPA) primarily associated with bariatric surgery at Grand View Hospital was deemed over and CDC removed its travel advisory.
However, CDC and multiple state and local health departments continue to receive reports of VIM-CRPA infections in patients following surgeries and invasive procedures at several different hospitals in Tijuana. Five cases of VIM-CRPA infections have been identified in patients with healthcare exposures in Tijuana-area hospitals and subsequently hospitalized in San Diego. The most recent case had a surgery in a Tijuana-area hospital in August 2019.
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) Program offered recommendations for health providers to identify and control the spread of resistant organisms in California.
