Emerging Infectious Diseases (Mar 2019)

Genomic Analysis of Cardiac Surgery–Associated Mycobacterium chimaera Infections, United States

  • Nabeeh A. Hasan,
  • L. Elaine Epperson,
  • Adrian Lawsin,
  • Rachael R. Rodger,
  • Kiran M. Perkins,
  • Alison Laufer Halpin,
  • K. Allison Perry,
  • Heather Moulton-Meissner,
  • Daniel J. Diekema,
  • Matthew B. Crist,
  • Joseph F. Perz,
  • Max Salfinger,
  • Charles L. Daley,
  • Michael Strong

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2503.181282
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 25, no. 3
pp. 559 – 563

Abstract

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A surgical heater–cooler unit has been implicated as the source for Mycobacterium chimaera infections among cardiac surgery patients in several countries. We isolated M. chimaera from heater–cooler units and patient infections in the United States. Whole-genome sequencing corroborated a risk for these units acting as a reservoir for this pathogen.

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