Earlier this month (September 7), the seventh person in just over a year lost his life due to infection by an antibiotic-resistant strain of the bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae. The deadly infection first struck at the Bethesda, Maryland-based National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in August 2011 when a woman from New York in need of a lung transplant was killed. Five more victims followed over the next 6 months, but the latest fatality—a young boy from Minnesota—suggests that the lethal bacterium has not yet left the building.
NIH researchers used whole genome sequencing to confirm that the boy’s death was a result of the same strain of K. pneumonia. “This kid probably got this infection because a patient who was a carrier [of the superbug] was on the same unit,” John Gallin, the director of the clinical center, told The Washington Post. “There was undoubtedly some intrahospital transmission despite our ...
