Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae

Carbapenem antibiotics are the strongest type and are used as a last resort.  Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) is becoming a major concern within the medical community due to their resistance to the strongest antibiotics.  This is a problem because drug-resistance bacterias have been a problem for more than a decade with no way to combat them.  There recently has been a case of a man having this superbug-like bacteria in Virginia.  doctors tried to stop the infection by giving the man different antibiotics and finally the strongest last-resort pill was given and it did nothing.  After three months, the man died.  The story does not end there, the man is dead, but not the bacteria.  The bacteria continues to thrive in the environment and starts infecting other people.

This is extremely frightening for people that out there is a bacteria that can not be fought against.  Usually the bacteria is in hospitals and nursing homes.  Currently hundreds of institutions are being hit.  CRE is a general term used to describe the bacteria that have mutated to resist the antibiotics.  For example, over the summer, there was a strain of Klebsiella pneimoniae that was a CRE outside of Washington D.C. at a health center.  Seven people died after contracting this mutated strain.  There are other cases like this showing up throughout the country with worse or better death outcomes.  The different bacteria could range from intestinal and urinary tract infections to pneumonia.  Death rates for CRE infected are about 40%.  CRE is not only gaining popularity and fear, but is growing in strength.  

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/29/bacteria-deadly-hospital-infection/1727667/?csp=fbfanpage

http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/organisms/cre/index.html