Aurora Sinai Medical Center confirmed Monday it has isolated a patient infected with a deadly superbug bacteria that officials say did not originate in the hospital.
Sinai officials declined to be more specific because of patient confidentiality rules. But they did say the bacteria typically originates outside the country. The hospital is following guidelines from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prevent the bacteria from spreading to other patients at the hospital near downtown, at 945 N. 12th St.
Thirty patients on the same floor as the infected individual are being tested for the bacteria. The patient's case is not a threat to the community or others in the hospital, hospital officials said.
In general, the bacteria called carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, has become more drug-resistant over the past decade. At the same time, its prevalence has increased more than fourfold, according to the CDC.
CRE kills up to half of all patients it infects.
Hospitals are not required to report individual cases — only clusters of cases — and the information normally isn't made available to patients. In this case, a medical professional who received an advisory memo about the CRE case leaked it to local television stations.
CDC Director Tom Frieden has referred to CRE as "nightmare bacteria."
....Wisconsin is among the first six states in the nation to require facilities to report infections associated with the superbug to the state, though the surveillance is still new and many hospitals and long-term acute care facilities may not be aware of it.
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