“Unfortunately, 17 minors have died, all of them premature, underweight children, plus a single case of one 14 year-old,” said the minister when speaking at president Claudia Sheinbaum’s regular press round.

Adding to the 13 cases previously reported at four facilities in the central State of Mexico, the official mentioned three more deaths in Michoacán (of nine affected) and one in Guanajuato (of six), following the first search for other possible outbreaks in the rest of the nation.

With the information received from the last two federative entities, the authorities concluded the dates for the outbreak appearances were similar to the one registered in the State of Mexico in the month of November, caused by the same agent, said Kershenobich.

“It was confirmed that the company supplying parenteral nutrition was the same, from the mixing plant in Toluca. This finding reinforces the hypothesis that at some point in the process of preparing the solutions, contamination occurred,” he said.

The authorities issued an epidemiological alert last Tuesday, to which another from the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris) was added.

The latter informed health professionals about the preventive banning of intravenous parenteral nutrition solutions, prepared from November 21 by the company Productos Hospitalarios.

Kershenobich indicated that in the wake of the banning no new cases were reported after December 3.

“The international recommendation is that two (long) incubation periods are requested to close an outbreak, but for security reasons, we are asking for three, from the date of the onset of symptoms of the last registered case,” said the secretary, adding December 16 as a tentative date.

For her part, Sheinbaum mentioned actions such as the inspection of all mixing plants by Cofepris, administrative and criminal sanctions.

“What we want is to get to the root of the problem, that is, what happened in that mixing plant in Toluca and the define the company’s accountability, because it is not just one person’s responsibility, but also the company’s,” she said.

She asserted that the investigation must be completed, and “there must be sanctions, because children’s lives were lost here.”

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