13 children die in Mexico from suspected contaminated IV bags

MEXICO CITY -- Thirteen children under the age of 14 have died in central Mexico and authorities said Thursday they suspect contaminated IV feeding bags as the culprit.

The federal Health Department ordered doctors across the country not to use IV nutrition bags made by the company Productos Hospitalarios S.A de C.V., though the exact source of the infections is still under investigation. Phone calls to numbers listed for the company and emails seeking comment went unanswered.

The outbreak appeared to be Klebsiella oxytoca, a multidrug-resistant bacteria. It was first detected in November at three government hospitals and one private one in the State of Mexico, on the outskirts of Mexico City.

The department said the children appeared to have died from a blood infection.

So far, of 20 possible cases, the bacteria was ruled out in one case, suspected in four and confirmed in 15 cases. Of the 19 patients, 13 died and the six others are being treated at hospitals.

Asked about the cluster of cases, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that health officials "told me about a case yesterday, but let's say, it's under control.”

It was the latest public blow to Mexico’s tottering, underfunded health care system. Last week, the director of the country’s flagship national cardiology institute said the hospital didn’t have money to buy essential supplies, calling the situation “critical.”

Dr. Jorge Gaspar, the hospital's director, wrote an internal letter saying that budget cuts “have affected the acquisition of supplies necessary for the institution's functioning.” In a subsequent public letter the next day, he clarified that the initial message was intended for an “internal” audience and assured the public that “we are working to solve the situation.”

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

In 2023, authorities arrested an anesthesiologist they blamed for an outbreak of meningitis that killed 35 patients and sickened 79.

The doctor, whose name was withheld, apparently carried his own morphine from one private hospital to another, spreading a fungal infection that contaminated the medication at the first clinic, authorities said.

The drug may not have been stored properly. Some smaller hospitals or maternity clinics in Mexico don’t have their own dispensing pharmacies or are not authorized to handle controlled medications like opiates, and thus long relied on anesthesiologists to bring their own.

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. More than 69 patients were sickened in that outbreak.

Former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who left office on Sept. 30, complained frequently that drug supply companies were charging too much, and so he essentially revamped the whole medical purchasing system, pledging to provide Mexicans a health care that is “better than in Denmark.”

However, the new system of government-run warehouses has foundered, plagued by chronic shortages of supplies and drugs, while a gargantuan government supply depot López Obrador set up and called the “mega drug store” now sits largely empty.

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