The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued a warning against what they are calling a "nightmare bacteria" that may be attacking hospitals nationwide. CDC Thomas Frieden issued the news earlier this week, saying it could be the same bug that struck the National Institutes of Health two years ago.
The lethal bug is called Carbapenen-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE. According to Frieden, it's especially deadly because it is resistant to nearly all antibiotics, it kills nearly half of all humans infected by blood and it is able to transfer its antibiotic resistance to other bacteria.
"It's not often that our scientists come to me and say we have a very serious problem and we need to sound an alarm. But that's exactly what we are doing today," Frieden said in an official statement. "Our strongest antibiotics don't work, and patients are left with potentially untreatable infections."
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