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Resistant Bacterial Infection Outbreak At California Hospital

Posted by timothy on from the lord-have-mrsa dept.

puddingebola writes From the article: "A potentially deadly "superbug" resistant to antibiotics has infected seven patients, including two who died, and more than 160 others were exposed at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center through contaminated medical instruments, the hospital revealed. The drug-resistant superbug known as CRE was likely transmitted to the Los Angeles patients by contaminated medical scopes during endoscopic procedures that took place between October 2014 and January 2015, a university statement said. " UCLA says the infections occurred via contaminated endoscopes that were sterilized according to the manufacturer's specifications. (Note: beware autoplaying video ad; adjust your volume accordingly.)

1 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Look up CRE by Cafe+Alpha · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Current estimates are that 3% of patients in ICU test positive and 1/3 of people in nursing homes.

    You read that right, 1/3. Also multiple types of bacteria are CRE. It means they have an enzyme that breaks down a class of antibotics.

    This has been sneaking up on us for a while.

    I think that the problem is, most bacteria are usually harmless, but these can't be killed easy, and if they ever turn into blood infections the mortality rate seems to be 50%.