IV bag contamination suspected to have killed 13 children in Mexico | Health news

The president says the situation is “under control,” but the episode marks a new low for an underfunded system in “critical” condition.

Contaminated IV feeding bags may have caused the deaths of 13 children in central Mexico, the latest blow to the country’s ailing health care system, health officials say.

Children as young as 14 appear to have died from a blood infection after drug-resistant Klebsiella oxytoca bacteria was found in three public facilities and one private clinic in Mexico state in November, the health department said Thursday.

The department ordered doctors to stop using intravenous solutions made by Productos Hospitalarios without specifying whether the medical firm was the distributor of IV bags that may have been contaminated. There was no comment from the company at the time of reporting.

Officials have yet to determine the exact cause of death, but have tested 20 children for the presence of the bacteria, finding 15 confirmed infections and four suspected cases. Seven of the children remain in hospital.

Asked about a set of things, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that she was aware of the situation and that it was “under control.”

‘critical’

The episode marked a new low point in the nation’s fragile, underfunded health care system.

Last week, the director of the country’s flagship National Cardiology Institute said the hospital had no money to buy essential supplies, calling the situation “critical”.

Hospital director Dr. Jorge Gaspar had written an internal letter stating that the budget cuts had “affected the purchase of goods necessary for the operation of the institution”.

Mexico has been dogged by scandals over contaminated medical supplies for years.

Last year, authorities arrested an anesthesiologist they blamed for a meningitis outbreak that killed 35 patients and sickened 79.

In 2020, 14 people died after a hospital run by a Mexican state-owned oil company gave dialysis patients drugs contaminated with bacteria.

Former President Andres Manuel López Obrador, who left office in September, overhauled the country’s medical procurement system, vowing to provide Mexicans with health care that was “better than Denmark.”

However, the new system of government-run warehouses has collapsed, plagued by chronic shortages of supplies and medicines.