Hospitals across the United States are forced to postpone medical scans and ration lifesaving procedures while waiting on the shipments of contrast dye being produced in a plant in Shanghai affected by a citywide lockdown due to rising COVID-19 infections.
The dye is usually injected into a patient's veins and gives more contrast than non-dye imaging treatments like CT scans. Increased contrast helps doctors diagnose a brain hemorrhage or clot, observe the function of a heart or other organ, and determine if a tumor is growing or shrinking, among other things, per NBC News report.
It is produced in the Shanghai plant of General Electric, which is a major supplier of the dye for health facilities in the country.
According to Nancy Foster, vice president of quality and patient safety policy at the American Hospital Association, around 50% of US hospitals and imaging facilities likely use GE's contrast dye. But the shortage has been going on "for a couple of weeks now," she stated in a Bloomberg report.
"Most hospitals, for a product like this, would keep on hand maybe a couple of weeks of supply," Foster said.
Growing Concerns
Due to the shortage, hospital systems across the country have been deferring non-urgent medical procedures and instead relying on alternate imaging and diagnostic equipment that does not require the dye when necessary.
Dr. Matthew Davenport, the vice-chair of the American College of Radiology Commission on quality and safety, noted that the situation has been very challenging for doctors to identify "what harms are going to occur."
"And I'm confident that there will be some delayed diagnoses or misdiagnoses because we are using imaging techniques that are not optimized, not perfect," Dr. Davenport said.
Around 50 million scans with contrast are being conducted in the US yearly, he added.
The shortage is the consequence of China's "zero-Covid" policy, which enforced a rigorous lockdown on Shanghai on March 27. It forced the closure of a GE plant for many weeks, though a GE Healthcare representative said in a statement that the company has started to reopen and is "trying to return to full capacity" as city authorities permit.
US Contrast Dye Supplier Working Double Time
GE representatives gave an update regarding the situation to Health Imaging. In the statement, the company said that it is "working around the clock to expand the capacity of its iodinated contrast media products."
The healthcare spokesperson of the company also stated: "After having to close our Shanghai manufacturing facility for several weeks due to local COVID policies, we have been able to reopen and are utilizing our other global plants wherever we can. We are working to return to full capacity as soon as local authorities allow."
The plant is now operating at 50% capacity, according to a statement released by GE on Monday. The company is transporting dye supplies from Shanghai and another plant in Ireland.
The American Hospital Association wrote GE on Monday, requesting that GE prioritize shipment to hospitals treating the most critical patients. Despite extensive efforts to save dye, the letter predicted that "in the near future, supply will severely fail" to satisfy demands.
