Free Republic

A deadly bacteria with a roughly 50 percent fatality rate worldwide has made its way to the US Gulf Coast, where it has been declared endemic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC has confirmed three cases of infection from the bacteria Burkholderia pseudomallei, which can cause potentially lethal melioidosis if not treated. “It is an environmental organism that lives naturally in the soil, and typically freshwater in certain areas around the world. Mostly in subtropical and tropical climates,” Julia Petras, an epidemic intelligence service officer with CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, told...

A deadly bacteria that kills up to 50 percent of people it infects has now been listed as endemic along the US gulf coast. Dr Julia Petras, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who made the warning, said Burkholderia pseudomallei was now likely lurking in soil and stagnant water across the 1,600 miles from Texas to Florida. People infected with the bacteria suffer melioidosis, a severe condition that can trigger pneumonia and sepsis and can be fatal. Doctors are now on alert for the disease, which can initially be misdiagnosed as another infection. The CDC...

A rare blood infection is claiming lives, and the CDC can't pinpoint the source. The infection, caused by the Elizabethkingia anophelis bacteria, has killed 17 people in Wisconsin since November and just claimed a life in Michigan, the Detroit News reports. Elizabethkingia is often found in water and soil, but – until now – has seldom caused infections. So far, 54 Wisconsin residents have contracted the infection, CNN reports. "We don't see 48 of the identical organism causing an outbreak like this very often," Michael Bell, deputy director for the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at the Centers for Disease...