The U.S. and Mexico have asked the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency of international concern over a fungal meningitis outbreak linked to two surgery clinics in a Mexico border city, a CDC official told CBS News on May 26.
Twenty-five people in the U.S. with probable or suspected cases underwent surgical procedures with epidural anesthesia in Matamoros, Mexico, between January and May. Two people affected have died.
Four more notes:
- The CDC is collaborating with Mexican health authorities to alert and monitor 220 U.S. patients who had surgery at one of two now closed clinics between January and May 13. The majority of people being monitored are Texas residents. Health officials are urging anyone who had surgery at Riverside Surgical Center or Clinica K-E to be evaluated for fungal meningitis, even if they do not have symptoms, which can take weeks to develop.
- People with suspected or probable cases reported headaches before progressing to fever, vomiting, neck pain and blurred vision.
- CDC officials said patients from the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Colombia were on the exposed list. Investigators believe many of the potentially exposed patients had sought cosmetic operations such as liposuction or breast implants, according to CBS News.
- Authorities are working to confirm the source of the outbreak, though they believe medications used during anesthesia may have been contaminated.