Product Warnings, Safety Recalls, and the like

[FreshFish]

If there already is a thread for these things let me know and I will delete this one to avoid duplication.

I read an article recently warning people about health risks associated with a duodenoscope (something doctors use to look inside your small intestine). There is a design flaw such that, even when they clean the 'scope after use, there is a place that bacteria can grow that doesn't get reached by the cleaner. and the safety warnings have been late and inadequate.

So if you have a friend or relative who has such a procedure recommended, you might want to alert them of the potential danger:

(please ignore the political rants of the article's author and focus only on the safety issue)

more than half a million patients undergoing a common medical procedure risk getting a superbug infection because their doctor is using a contaminated instrument. A doctor inserts a thin, tubular scope down your throat and into your digestive system to treat cancer and other problems. You assume the tube is clean. Think again.

The scope’s defective design allows bacteria to grow even after it’s rigorously cleaned between patients. ... Three months ago, Olympus, the manufacturer of most of these specialized scopes (duodenoscopes), began recalling them. Yet numerous hospitals are still using them, and patients are still getting infected and dying — eight more infections and two more deaths, according to last month’s FDA data.

Even at prestigious institutions such as UCLA Medical Center, New York-Presbyterian, Hartford Hospital in Connecticut, Massachusetts General in Boston and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, patients have been infected with superbugs from contaminated duodenoscopes.

anyway, there is danger here and inadequate warning is being circulated, according to the author.