A drug-resistant superbug infected 32 people at a Seattle hospital over a two-year period, with the bacteria spreading through contaminated medical scopes that had been cleaned to the manufacturer's recommendation, officials said on Thursday.
Eleven of the patients infected at Virginia Mason Medical Center between 2012 and 2014 eventually died, the hospital and city health officials said. But those patients were critically ill before being infected and it was unclear what role, if any, the bacteria played in their deaths.
The patients were infected with drug-resistant bacteria, including the rare Carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae, which are difficult to treat because they have high levels of resistance to antibiotics, said Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, a senior official at Public Health — Seattle & King County.
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