Minnesota boy is 7th victim of superbug at NIH
A deadly, drug-resistant superbug outbreak that first appeared last summer at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., claimed its seventh victim Sept. 7 – a seriously ill boy from Minnesota, the Washington Post reports. The boy was the 19th patient at the research hospital to contract an antibiotic-resistant strain of the bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae.
Nineteen people at the highly regarded research hospital called the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., have contracted an antibiotic-resistant strain of the bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae, the Washington Post reports. Seven have died, and the latest was a boy from Minnesota, the newspaper says.
His case was the first new infection of the superbug at NIH since January, and it's a troublesome sign that the bug lives inside the huge brick-and-glass federal facility.
More information about the boy has not been released.
The bacteria can cause different types of infections, including pneumonia, bloodstream infections, wound or surgical site infections, and meningitis, the CDC reports on an info page.
