Some Oklahoma Hospitals Among Those Fighting Drug-Resistant Bacteria

Deadly bacteria are spreading to hospitals across the nation.

They're known to kill up to half the people they infect. Hospitals in more than 42 states, including Oklahoma, are dealing with infected patients.

The bacteria have been around for years, but really seemed to grow last year.

It's highly drug-resistant and the Center for Disease Control says it could be the beginning of the end of antibiotics for some bacteria.

It's a family of more than 70 kinds of bacteria, most commonly known as CRE, though it's recently been pegged as the "nightmare bacteria."

Federal health experts say CRE has evolved so much over the past decade, it's outgrown the antibiotics that once treated it, making it resistant to even our strongest drugs.

"This is a good example of why we are always harping on using antibiotics appropriately, because you get drug resistance when people are inappropriately using antibiotics," said State Epidemiologist Becky Coffman.

Coffman said CRE is only a problem for health care facilities, where patients are most susceptible to infection.

The bacteria are carried from person to person, and were detected in 200 hospitals last year, including some in Oklahoma.

"We do know from our relationships with hospitals and hospital labs that they've seen occasional cases of CRE in Oklahoma. We don't know of any outbreaks," Coffman.

Coffman said hospitals in the state aren't required to report CRE and said there are multiple bacteria that are drug-resistant, like MRSA.

"It gets a little difficult to make every little organism reportable," Coffman said. "Right now, we don't think it's important, specifically because it is a health care centered issue and not a public health issue."

The CDC has warned hospitals that bacteria are spreading, and doctors in the state are hopeful the warnings will help rein it in.

"I think, as we see over these next few months, there's going to be a much-heightened awareness, as we now see that people are dying from this and it is so difficult to control," said Dr. Mary Ann Bauman.

The state health department didn't say what hospitals in the state had been infected with CRE.

Officials say, if there were an outbreak in the state, they would change their standards for reporting the bacteria to the CDC.