More than a third of heater-cooler devices used in open heart surgery may be contaminated with deadly bacteria

(Association for Professionals in Infection Control) Thirty-three of 89 (37 percent) heater-cooler units assessed between July 2015 and December 2016 tested positive for Mycobacterium chimaera (M. chimaera), a bacterium associated with fatal infections in open-heart surgery patients, according to new research presented at the 44th Annual Conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news