Metagenomic Identification of Fusarium solani Strain as Cause of US Fungal Meningitis Outbreak Associated with Surgical Procedures in Mexico, 2023.

ABSTRACT: We used metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) to investigate an outbreak of Fusarium solani meningitis in US patients who had surgical procedures under spinal anesthesia in Matamoros, Mexico, during 2023. Using a novel method called metaMELT (metagenomic multiple extended locus typing), we performed phylogenetic analysis of concatenated mNGS reads from 4 patients (P1-P4) in parallel with reads from 28 fungal reference genomes. Fungal strains from the 4 patients were most closely related to each other and to 2 cultured isolates from P1 and an additional case (P5), suggesting that all cases arose from a point source exposure. Our findings support epidemiologic data implicating a contaminated drug or device used for epidural anesthesia as the likely cause of the outbreak. In addition,

SUBMITTER: Chiu CY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12044249 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature