A Nevada womans death from a superbug is a wake-up call for the continent

This illustration released by the Centers for Disease Control depicts a three-dimensional (3D) computer-generated image of a group of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae bacteria.

Reno officials got a report on the “nightmare bacteria” one Thursday in late August.

A Washoe County woman in her 70s had been admitted to a local hospital with a full-body response to an infection. It was carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, a bug resistant to all 26 federally approved antibiotics. The patient, whose identity has not been disclosed, died in early September.

In Lei Chen’s years as an epidemiologist at the Washoe County Health District, she had investigated a case of Japanese encephalitis (a virus that causes brain inflammation), uncovered salmonella (the bacteria behind a brutal form of food poisoning) and studied the spread of coxsackievirus (otherwise known as hand, foot and mouth disease). But the lab results she received Aug. 25 were unfamiliar.

“I’ve never seen that kind of report,” Chen recalled recently, after publishing results of the incident through the Centers for Disease Control.

Read more: https://lasvegassun.com/news/2017/jan/30/a-nevada-womans-death-from-a-superbug-is-a-wake-up/

Cross-posted in the Health Group.