United States: According to a news report in post-gazette.com, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has urged hospitals to follow mould protocols in the wake of four deaths caused at two Pennsylvania-based hospitals, possibly, after the patients contracted mould-related infections.

The news report, based on the ‘Notes from the Field’ report released on CDC’s website on May 13, 2016, talks about four transplant patients who died after being infected by a deadly mould strain called mucormycetes.

Three of the patients, the news report said, had no infectious diseases and were placed in a negative-pressure room in the cardiothoracic intensive care unit at the UPMC Presbyterian, as the other cardiothoracic ICUs were full.

“Negative-pressure rooms are recommended for isolation of patients with a suspected or confirmed airborne infectious disease; this investigation highlights how unnecessary placement of immunocompromised patients in negative pressure rooms could result in net harm and therefore should be avoided,” the news report said, quoting from the CDC report.

The CDC report further added, “Caring for immunosuppressed patients in negative-pressure environments has been previously identified as a risk factor for invasive mould infections, possibly related to the potential to concentrate dust and mould spores in these rooms.”