The family of superbugs made headlines two years ago when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned they were spreading.
Now, they’re back in the news after seven patients at a Los Angeles hospital caught CRE after routine endoscopic treatments for bile ducts, gall bladder or pancreas.
Two of them have died, the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center said Wednesday. And the hospital is contacting 179 others who had endoscopic procedures between October and January. It’s offering them home tests to screen for the bacteria.
Here are some important things to know about the deadly disease.
What is CRE?
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Also, if you come down with a harsh bacterial infection after medical treatment in another country, be sure to tell your healthcare provider about that treatment. Some CRE are more common overseas than in the United States.
Also, some researchers believe doctors should be careful not to prescribe antibiotics too quickly.
Spreading them around too much probably led to the superbugs evolving resistance to them in the first place.
CNN’s Elisabeth Cohen contributed to this report.
