Superbug kills 2 in North Carolina

Health officials at the Carolinas HealthCare System confirmed that an antibiotic-resistant superbug — the same one that killed two people in California earlier this year — has claimed the lives of two people in North Carolina in recent months.

Health officials on Sunday afternoon said that two residents of the Charlotte, North Carolina, area have died in recent months from carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE. Three people acquired CRE while in Carolinas HealthCare System hospitals this year, and about 15 people with existing infections have been treated in the hospitals, the officials said.

The Charlotte-based hospital system is screening for people with CRE and is isolating those who are infected, according to Dr. Katie Passaretti, who is in charge of infection prevention at Carolinas HealthCare.

Passaretti said the hospital aggressively cleans the rooms of CRE patients who are released. The hospital uses a device that kills bacteria with ultraviolet light.

Multiple media outlets reported that the hospital did not release details about the deaths because of medical privacy laws.

One of the Charlotte victims is believed to be 88-year-old Alda Mae Crump, who died on Friday at CMC Mercy, according to a report by WCNC, an NBC affiliate in Charlotte.

Crump, who had spent weeks in and out of Lincoln County hospital, is believed to have contracted the superbug shortly before the New Year holiday, according to her daughter Jolene Church, who spoke to WCNC.

"I think she realized that she was going. She said, 'Jolene you need to stir things up. Don't let anyone else go through this,'" Church told WCNC.

Similar outbreaks of CRE have been reported across the country. Cases of the bacterium are difficult to treat because some varieties are resistant to most known antibiotics. CRE usually affects the sickest patients, those who are in long-term care facilities or use devices like ventilators and urinary catheters for long periods. 

CRE can contribute to death in up to half of infected patients, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The University of California at Los Angeles reported last week that 179 patients at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center were exposed to CRE during endoscopic procedures from October to January. Two people died at UCLA, and five others were infected with the bacterium.  

Endoscopes, implicated in the CRE outbreak in California, have been reviewed in Charlotte, and Carolinas HealthCare has changed how it cleans the devices.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press