Superbug kills 1 and hospitalizes 17 in the US state of North Carolina

The major reason for contraction has been the endoscopic procedures

The sigh of relief heaved by the US after the exit of Ebola was short-lived since another health risk has erupted. The superbug which has claimed two lives so far in Los Angeles has now been reported in North Carolina where it has already left one person dead. So far 18 people have been affected by carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) in the state as officials confirm the number.

While talking to CNN on the matter, Kevin McCarthy, a spokesman with the Carolinas HealthCare System, revealed that out of these 18 patients, 15 had already contracted the bug when they were admitted into the unnamed hospital in Charlotte but the remaining three had fallen prey to it while in the hospital. Prior to this, two people had lost their lives last week at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after they had their routine endoscopic procedures. Seven people, which also include an 18 year old boy, had been diagnosed with the superbug and their cases are related to the use of surgical tools which are operated on more than 500,000 patients.

Following this, the officials have warned the 179 people who had their endoscopies conducted at the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center between October 3 and January 28. UCLA spokeswoman Dale Tate, has confirmed that the diagnosed are receiving treatment at the moment.

With this epidemic, people have started to have doubts about the medical procedures used to clean out endoscopies since the infection had spread after people had these procedures where a specialized scope, known as a duodenoscope, was inserted down the throat to diagnose and treat pancreatic and bile duct diseases.

The 18 year old man’s attorney has corresponded with the officials and he has revealed how his client contracted the disease while he visited the medical center in mid-2014 for a pancreatic ailment and had to get an endoscopy shortly after which he fell ill and had to be hospitalized. He had spent a total of 83 days in the ICU as reported by his attorney.

‘It’s definitely a severe infection,’ the attorney said. Though the 18 year old is no longer confined to the ICU, he is still hospitalized under 24 hours monitoring.

source: CNN