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Transplant Operations Suspended At UPMC Following Mold Outbreak

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – UPMC has suspended all organ transplant operations until it has completed its investigation following a mold outbreak.

Also, UPMC says a team from the Centers for Disease Control will be in Pittsburgh tomorrow to help in the investigation.

UPMC says it's still waiting on the results of mold cultures taken in various locations throughout UPMC Presbyterian and Montefiore.

Two heart transplant patients with mold infections died, as well as a liver transplant patient.

A fourth patient is being treated for a serious mold infection.

UPMC's Chief Medical and Scientific Officer Steven Shapiro told KDKA's Kym Gable, "We've been tirelessly culturing everything possible, hundreds of cultures around the clock. Had we found something, we would have fixed it. The fact that we're so clean is giving us pause."

Shapiro said UPMC is going beyond the norm of what other medical facilities typically do in a situation like this. Eleven recent transplant patients are now being given a new anti-fungal agent.

Shapiro says it's a protocol that may end up being the standard in treatment. "we really will get to the bottom of this and make this continue to be the safest environment possible for patients."

The CDC team will be joined by representatives from the state Department of Health. The CDC will decide the next coure of action.

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