An outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease in the Bronx has killed two people and left dozens more sickened according to city health officials.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reported 31 cases of the disease since July 10th.
“We are concerned about this unusual increase in Legionnaires’ Disease cases in the South Bronx,” Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett told reporters. “We are conducting a swift investigation to determine the source of the outbreak and prevent future cases. I urge anyone with symptoms to seek medical attention right away.”
Officials say they are testing water from cooling towers along with humidifiers and air conditioning systems to determine the source of the outbreak. City officials are worried with the hot weather striking New York that if the bacteria is in a drinking supply the number of cases could escalate.
The disease presents with pneumonia-like symptoms including fever, chills and headaches. It cannot be spread from person to person.
The last major outbreak of the bacteria in New York was in December and January when 12 people were sickened in Co-op City. The source was found to be a contaminated cooling tower.
A dangerous and deadly bacteria has been released from a high-security laboratory in Louisiana.
The release of Burkholderia pseudomallei from the Tulane National Primate Research Center has been the subject of investigations by multiple federal and state organizations but none has been able to explain the cause of the release or even how much bacteria has contaminated the land in the area.
The lab, 35 miles north of New Orleans, is just the latest safety breach at some of the biggest laboratories in the nation.
“The fact that they can’t identify how this release occurred is very concerning,” Richard Ebright, a biosafety expert from Rutgers University, told USA Today.
The scientists at the lab say that four monkeys that were never used in the experiments have been confirmed to have exposure to the virus. A federal investigator became ill after visiting the facility and tested positive for the virus. The scientist will make a full recovery.
“We’re taking this extraordinarily seriously. It’s very disturbing to us,” said Andrew Lackner, director of the Tulane primate center. “Right from the beginning we’ve spent an enormous amount of time trying to figure out how this could have happened.”
Lackner says there is no public health threat.
The Centers for Disease Control is investigating a potentially deadly bacterium that normally is found in hospitals but is appearing in doctor’s offices and medical facilities.
A study released Wednesday shows that the bacteria, C. difficile, has been found in patients who had not visited hospitals but doctors or dentists. The CDC study, published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, said 150,000 people who had not been in the hospital came down with C. diff in 2011.
The bacteria cause a deadly diarrhea and infected nearly half a million Americans in the last year. The bacteria were the direct cause of 15,000 deaths.
“This is really an important issue. We need to understand better how people are getting C. diff,” said Dr. Cliff McDonald, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC.
The CDC encourages people to wash their hands with soap and water because alcohol based antibiotic jells do not work on C. diff.
A deadly superbug has killed two people at UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Medical Center and at least 180 patients have been exposed to the deadly bacteria.
The two dead are among seven patients who have the drug-resistant superbug known as CRE. The outbreak is the latest in a string of incidents across the U.S.
The bacteria, if it spreads to a patient’s bloodstream, can kill up to 50% of patients.
The bacteria reportedly spread through two improperly cleaned endoscopes. The scopes are used on 500,000 patients annually to treat diseases from cancers to gallstones. Medical experts say because of their design they are difficult to clean.
UCLA says it notified public health authorities immediately wen they discovered the bacteria in a patient.
One hospital safety consultant said that current outbreak is unprecedented.
“These outbreaks at UCLA and other hospitals could collectively be the most significant instance of disease transmission ever linked to a contaminated reusable medical instrument,” Lawrence Muscarella said.
Last month, 32 patients were sickened by a bacteria similar to CRE at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. Eleven of those patients died from the illness.
New York health officials have reported that the antibiotic resistant superbug MRSA has been found in private homes.
The bacteria that cause 23,000 deaths a year has been most commonly found inside hospitals and nursing homes. The Centers for Disease Control says that outside of health care settings, the most common way for the bacteria to spread were close quarter living situations such as military barracks or athletic locker rooms.
HealthDay is reporting that 161 New York residents who became infected with the bacteria had contracted the disease in their homes.
“What our findings show is it’s also endemic in households,” said lead researcher Dr. Anne-Catrin Uhlemann, of Columbia University Medical Center.
Doctors say the discovery will now require not only treatment of the victims of the bacteria in the hospital but also a full search of the victim’s home and actively remove the sources of the bacteria.
A rare bacterium has been discovered at fish markets in multiple New York boroughs and has been confirmed to have infected at least 30 people.
Health officials say they do not know the source of the outbreak. The bacterium, Mycobacterium marinum, is common in fish but does not normally infect humans. Markets in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan have been found to have the bacterium.
The infection causes bumps under the skin or tender lesions. Once the bumps turn into open wounds, they won’t heal on their own. If the infections are not cleared at that point, they can go deeper into the skin and require surgery.
Dr. Jay Varma, deputy commissioner for disease control, said a part of the problem in finding the source is that the infection can take weeks to show even the most mild symptoms.
A doctor in the Chinatown section of New York said that many patients who came to him said they were infected at a site where they were cut by a fish bone. One victim said they had cut themselves on a lobster.
A study from Consumer Reports shows that about half the chicken breasts sold in U.S. grocery stores contain antibiotic resistant bacteria.
The study shows that if someone were to become ill because of the bacteria on the chicken, it would lead to potentially more difficult cures and possibly hospitalization.
Consumer Reports tested for six types of bacteria in 316 raw chicken breasts purchased at U.S. retailers in July. Almost all of the chicken breasts contained some kind of potentially harmful bacteria and 49.7 percent of the chicken breasts had a former of bacteria resistant to at least three different antibiotics.
The most common antibiotic resistant bacteria were forms that are associated with the antibiotics given to chickens to help increase their growth and fight disease.
The FDA announced last week they will call on meat producers to phase out the use of antibiotics in their animal breeding and growth.
Scientists say that drug-resistant “superbugs” are one of the gravest threats in the history of medicine.
The piece in the Lancet medical journal says that routine operations could become deadly in the very near future as bacteria continue to evolve to fight the drugs used to combat them. Doctors say a century of medical advances could be wiped out in a matter of years.
“I am concerned that in 20 years, if I go into hospital for a hip replacement, I could get an infection leading to major complications and possible death, simply because antibiotics no longer work as they do now,” said John Watson, England’s deputy chief medical officer.
No new antibiotic has been introduced since 1987 because drug manufacturers cannot gain a profit from researching and producing new antibiotics.
The researchers say a major part of the problem is that the general public has become dependent on antibiotics to the point that if one doctor does not prescribe them they will seek out a “second opinion” that will give them the drugs.
Three children visiting the petting zoo at a Minnesota pumpkin farm ended up with E. Coli infections according to the Minnesota Department of Health.
All three children are from the Twin Cities area and range in age from 15 months to 7 years. The Department of Health confirmed that all three have the same strain of E. Coli.
One child is still hospitalized with hemolytic uremic syndrome, a complication that can result in kidney failure. The other two children did not require admission to a hospital.
Investigators say all the children had contact with goats or cattle. Two other cases of symptoms similar to E. Coli have been reported but not confirmed by the Department of Health.
The health department says the farm is cooperating with the investigation and has closed public access.
Britain’s chief medical officer is warning that the world could find itself “in a health system not dissimilar to the early 19th century at some point” as more bacteria become resistant to antibiotics.
Dame Sally Davies is calling for urgent action not only in the UK but around the world. She reported a worldwide increase in e coli and klebsiella, which causes pneumonia. Continue reading →