Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state's Department of Health and Environmental Control and Greenville (S.C.) Health System are investigating the cause of the infection that affected 15 surgical patients at the hospital and may have contributed to three of their deaths.
The investigation is focused on the hospital's water supply. "Any piece of equipment in the surgical environment that could have contact with water has to be looked at very carefully," Joseph Perz, DrPH, an epidemiologist with the CDC, told The Greenville News.
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The infections were caused by mycobacteria that are found naturally in water, soil and dust. Sterile water is used for surgeries, but there are some ways that unsterile water could be introduced to a surgical patient, including handwashing, scrub procedures and drying, according to the report.
"We are vigorously looking at any route in which water could have come in contact with the surgical field, but would like to stress that all GHS operating rooms have followed national standards of practice on OR sterilization of critical equipment," hospital officials said, according to The Greenville News.
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