outbreak investigation

Long before the recent superbug outbreaks, Olympus Corp. drew national attention for a faulty device tied to patient infections. In 2001, the Japanese company recalled thousands of bronchoscopes from U.S. hospitals after reports of contamination and patient infections. The episode — and the company's response to it — mirrors its current troubles with gastrointestinal scopes. Bacteria were trapped unexpectedly inside a loose biopsy port on the bronchoscope, and potentially dangerous bugs could be passed to the next patient. More recently, a similar pattern emerged with duodenoscopes harboring life-threatening superbugs even though hospitals followed Olympus' cleaning instructions, federal regulators said...

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