WASHINGTON (TND) — At least 200 Americans are believed to have been exposed to fungal meningitis. One person is dead and four others have been hospitalized. The outbreak has been linked to two clinics in Matamoros, Mexico that perform cosmetic procedures.
This comes as medical tourism is on the rise with millions of Americans leaving the country each year to receive medical care in another country and experts say there are risks.
The Center for Medical Tourism Research and managing editor of the Journal of Health Care Management Standards, Dr. David Vequist joined The National Desk’s Dee Dee Gatton Friday morning to discuss the issue.
According to the CDC, millions of Americans go to other countries each year for medical procedures.
Vequist spoke about what he thinks is driving this and what types of procedures Americans are getting.
The driver of this primarily is information about the availability of alternative treatments that are available in other countries at potentially lower prices or potentially higher quality and so more people are finding about this. Basically, due to the internet, due to social media and due to the information that's out there," he said.Vequist added that the types of procedures people are getting are primarily dental, pharmaceutical and general surgery.
The countries that patients are going to the most, according to Vequist, are Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, Germany and India.
"There's been a 95% increase in fungal infections just since 2019 to now and this is fungal infections that are fairly new," he said. "It first came out of Japan in 2009. What's really happening is these fungal infections are increasing all over the world. But in these two clinics and also in both Matta Morris and Durango, there was an anesthesia that had increased risk for basically its fungal infection for Americans."
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