Photo Source: http://www.buildings.com/article-details/articleid/5817/title/newsworthy… week UCLA’s Ronald Reagan
Medical Center was made aware of a possible exposer to a deadly “superbug”. The superbug known as carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae (CRE) may have occurred during complex endoscopic procedures that took place between October 2014 and January 2015. The hospital is currently in the process of notifying nearly two hundred patients that may have been exposed. It is confirmed that two patients that recently passed away may have been exposed to the superbug. A bacterium that causes CRE has evolved into a super infection over the past few decades. This is why doctors are so worried about this bacterium. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that CRE is extremely difficult to treat because for decades it has been evolving and developing a very high tolerance to a multitude of antibiotics.
Hospital officials say that they are unable to find a break down in any of the cleaning procedures that could have led to this outbreak. This is why many officials including Pete Kaufman the attorney who is representing a patient who contracted CRE does not blame UCLA, but instead the manufacturer of the scopes a Japan-based company Olympus. The Medical Center has sterilized the hospital and eliminated the scopes responsible for spreading the superbug.
Dr.Sanjeev Seth an ER physician in LA states that the bacteria is very potent and can cause death and that people should be worried. CRE can infect the bladder and the lungs, symptoms to be aware of are coughing, fever, and/or the chills.