Health officials in Mexico are trying to figure out some 400 persons Following an alert from the United States that they could be infected with fungal meningitis, cases were detected in citizens of that country who had surgery at clinics in the Mexican city of Matamoros.
one American died as part of the outbreak, which includes two medical centers in this city in the state of Tamaulipas (northeast) bordering the US Brownsville in Texas. “They’re going to find out they’re infected,” the state’s health secretary, Vicente Joel Hernandez, told AFP on Thursday.
Of the 400 wanted, 20% are American The official said the Mexicans worked at the K-3 clinics in Centro Quirúgico 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 residents of that country who had returned from Matamoros had been diagnosed with the disease after being injected. 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, has advised its citizens Cancel Any surgical intervention in Matamoros that includes 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), from mid-October through today, at least 35 people in Mexico have died and around 80 have been infected. Because of an outbreak of aseptic meningitis, the origin of which was a fungus that could have been transmitted at the time of applying anesthesia.
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.
