WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials laid out extra safety measures that hospitals can take to clean specialized medical scopes that have been linked to sometimes deadly bacterial outbreaks across the U.S.
However, Food and Drug Administration officials acknowledged on Tuesday that not all hospitals have the staff, expertise and resources to take the steps, including sterilizing scopes with toxic gas to kill bacteria. Even with such steps “the risk of infection transmission cannot be completely eliminated,” the FDA said in an online statement
Despite the risks of infection, the FDA says the devices should remain available because they benefit “appropriately selected patients.