Olympus Corp is the largest maker of a medical device at the center of recent United States superbug outbreaks. On Thursday Olympus announced that new steps are needed to clean its medical device. The company has issued new cleaning instructions and said that health providers should implement them as soon as possible.

In a 13-page letter, the company said that a small-bristle brush is required to clean potentially deadly bacteria from the devices. According to the company, the brush would be shipped no later than May 8. The device maker didn't announce whether it is safe to use the devices, called duodenoscopes, until the hospitals receive the brush. The company said that health provider can clean the device in accordance with the old instructions.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not made any announcement whether patients should forego procedures until the brushes are shipped out. But previously, the federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services advised discussing the benefits and risks of using duodenoscopes with their physician.

Olympus' Duodenoscopes are flexible lighted tubes that are inserted down the throat in a procedure called endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). According to reports, every year, over 500,000 ERCPs using duodenoscopes are performed in the country to drain fluids from pancreatic.

As the devices can be used again, it becomes essential to clean them after every use so that pathogens could not be transferred from one patient to the next. As per some reports, more than half dozen patients at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center were exposed to antibiotic-resistant bacteria from October through January. After examining the devices, federal regulators found that microbes could spread even when the health provider followed instructions of the manufacturer. They said that the problem was the design of the instruments.