Events

Safety Alert for VITEK 2 Gram Positive Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST) Cards

According to Department of Health, this safety alert involved a device in Hong Kong that was produced by BioMerieux.

What is this?

Alerts provide important information and recommendations about products. Even though an alert has been issued, it does not necessarily mean a product is considered to be unsafe. Safety Alerts, addressed to health workers and users, may include recalls. They can be written by manufacturers, but also by health officials.

Learn more about the data here
  • Type of Event
    Safety alert
  • Date
    2018-08-24
  • Event Date Posted
    2018-08-24
  • Event Country
    Hong Kong
  • Event Source
    DH
  • Event Source URL
    https://www.mdco.gov.hk/english/safety/recalls/recalls_20180824a.html
  • Notes / Alerts
    Hong Kong data is current through September 2018. All of the data comes from the Department of Health (Hong Kong), except for the categories Manufacturer Parent Company and Product Classification.
    The Parent Company and the Product Classification were added by ICIJ.
    The parent company information is based on 2017 public records. The device classification information comes from FDA’s Product Classification by Review Panel, based on matches of data from the U.S. and Hong Kong.
  • Extra notes in the data
    Medical Device Safety Alert
  • Reason
    Medical device safety alert: biomerieux vitek 2 gram positive antimicrobial susceptibility testing (ast) cards the united states food and drug administration (fda) has issued a medical device safety alert concerning vitek 2 gram positive cefoxitin screen and vitek 2 gram positive ast for oxacillin [lot numbers: all lots of gram positive ast cards with oxacillin and cefoxitin tests; manufacturing and distribution dates: 8 february 2017 to present], manufactured by biomerieux. the manufacturer is recalling the affected products because of false negative or false susceptible results for some strains of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (mrsa). it is continuing to investigate the issue to determine the root cause of the failure and the prevalence of the strains that are subject to erroneous results. according to the manufacturer, missed diagnosis and inappropriate treatment of mrsa could cause severe health consequences, including lack of treatment for a mrsa infection, and death. the manufacturer recommends that labs confirm potential mrsa upon activation of the software bioart rule. the mrsa safety alert letter is issued directing labs to: implement a custom vitek 2 system software bioart rule to aid in mitigating potential non-detection of mrsa when testing oxacillin (ox) and cefoxitin screen (oxsf) on vitek 2, enable the advanced expert system on the vitek 2 systems software to ensure that the appropriate forcing rules are applied to test results regardless of the parameter set in use, and use the existing strain submission system to send isolates of suspect strains of mrsa to the manufacturer for additional testing. for details, please refer to the following fda website: https://www.Fda.Gov/medicaldevices/safety/listofrecalls/ucm618135.Htm if you are in possession of the products, please contact your supplier for necessary actions. posted on 24 august 2018.

Device

VITEK 2 Gram Positive Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST) Cards

Manufacturer

BioMerieux