Fungal infections are not contagious and do not spread from person to person
Health officials in Mexico are trying to trace nearly 400 people who may have been infected with fungal meningitis following an alert from the United States.
One American died in the framework of the outbreak, which involves two medical centers in this city in the state of Tamaulipas (northeast) bordering the US Brownsville in Texas.
“They are going to find out they are infected,” state health secretary Vicente Joel Hernandez told AFP on Thursday.
The official said 20% of the 400 people are American and the rest Mexicans worked at the K-3 clinics in Centro Quirúrgico Riverside and Matamoros, which closed after the infection and death of seven other patients.
In an alert issued on Wednesday, the US government said some US residents who had returned from Matamoros were diagnosed with the disease after being injected with an anesthetic in the area around the spine (epidural).
For this reason, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the main federal public health agency in the United States, asked its citizens to cancel any surgical intervention in Matamoros that involves the said injection.
Meningitis causes inflammation of the membranes of the brain and spinal cord. The CDC states that fungal infections are not contagious and do not spread from person to person.
Symptoms are fever, headache, stiff neck, nausea, vomiting, confusion, or sensitivity to light.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans flock to Mexican border cities to have medical or dental procedures done at low cost.
In the state of Durango (North), since mid-October to date, at least 35 Mexicans have died and some 80 have been infected by an outbreak of aseptic meningitis, the origin of which was a fungus that was found at the time of applying anesthesia. could be sent. ,
Three people were arrested for that case, including the former director of the State Commission Against Health Risks, an inspector and an anesthesiologist.
On March 3, four Americans were kidnapped by suspected drug traffickers in Matamoros. Two of them died due to bullet wounds sustained while trying to escape and the rest were rescued.
According to officials, one of the hostages, who survived, was planning to undergo cosmetic surgery.
