IV bag contamination suspected to have killed 13 children in Mexico 

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

The Department of Health said on Thursday that the children, all under the age of 14, appeared to have died from a blood infection after drug-resistant Klebsiella oxytoca bacteria was detected in November in three public facilities and one private clinic in Mexico state.

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

Officials have yet to find the exact cause of the deaths, but had investigated the presence of the bacteria in 20 children, detecting 15 confirmed infections and four probable cases. Seven of the children remain in hospital.

Asked about the cluster of cases, President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Thursday that she had been informed of the situation and that it was “under control”.

The episode marked a new low for the country’s tottering, underfunded healthcare system.

Last week, the director of the country’s flagship National Institute of Cardiology said the hospital did not have money to buy essential supplies, calling the situation “critical”.

Dr Jorge Gaspar, the hospital’s director, had written an internal letter, saying that budget cuts had “affected the acquisition of supplies necessary for the institution’s functioning”.

Mexico has been plagued by contaminated medical supply scandals for years.

Last year, authorities arrested an anaesthesiologist they blamed for an outbreak of meningitis that killed 35 patients and caused 79 to fall ill.

In 2020, 14 people died after a hospital run by Mexico’s state-owned oil company gave a drug to dialysis patients that was contaminated with bacteria.

Former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who left office in September, revamped the country’s medical purchasing system, pledging to provide Mexicans with healthcare that is “better than in Denmark”.

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