Fungus that sparked deadly meningitis outbreak aggressively attacked the brainstem
Fungal meningitis infections from surgery clinics in Mexico last year were found to aggressively attack the brainstem, a new report finds.
The fungus behind a spate of deadly meningitis cases last year linked to medical clinics in Mexico was found to have aggressively attacked the base of patients’ brains, researchers said Wednesday in a report published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Fungal meningitis was reported in as many as 24 patients from the United States who visited two medical clinics in Matamoros, Mexico. Many came from Texas. Twelve died.
All of the patients had undergone cosmetic procedures — such as breast implants, butt lifts or liposuction — that required epidural anesthesia. It was later discovered that the epidural was contaminated with a fungus called Fusarium solani; the epidural, experts said, introduced the fungus into the patients’ cerebrospinal fluid, a liquid found in and around the spinal cord and brain that provides nourishment and protection and removes waste.
In the report, researchers from the University of Texas System and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scrutinized the electronic health records, imaging and pathology reports of 13 of the patients. They found that the fungus, which has a predilection for sticking to blood vessels, was rampant in the vessel-rich brainstem.
“What we ended up seeing is, literally, this fungus eating through blood vessels and causing clotting as well,” said Dr. Luis Ostrosky, division director of infectious diseases at UTHealth Houston and one of the paper’s authors.
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