Superbug Found at Second LA Hospital
Four patients have been infected with a deadly superbug at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, the hospital said Wednesday, and an additional 64 may have been exposed. Cedars-Sinai began investigating a possible link between CRE infections and one Olympus Corp. duodenoscope used from August to February of 2014 in a procedure called endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography ERCP, according to the Los Angeles Times. That involves putting a scope down a patient's throat to diagnose and treat problems in the digestive tract, like gallstones and cancer about 500,000 people undergo ERCP every year. MORE What You Need to Know About the California Superbug', A similar outbreak occurred at UCLA's Ronald Reagan Medical Center in mid-February. There, five people were infected by medical scopes with CRE bacteria, and two of them died. CRE, or carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, kills up to half of those infected. One of the four patients at Cedars-Sinai has died, but the hospital said it was for an unrelated reason. Los Angeles Times