The Pseudomonas bacteria is “pretty much everywhere” in India and the drug-resistant germ is common in many hospitals, said Dr. Worst cholera outbreak in decades kills 750 people in Malawi by New Jersey-based EzriCare LLC and made in India by Global Pharma Healthcare. A check of artificial tears brands used in Connecticut, Florida and Utah pointed to one common product: EzriCare Artificial Tears, an over-the-counter product marketed in the U.S. 9, a Florida hospital contacted the CDC to report bad eye infections connected to an outpatient clinic. In early November, investigators determined most of the infected Connecticut patients had been given artificial tears, though it wasn’t clear who had been given which brand. Tear ducts drain into the nasal cavity, which leads to the lungs and could provide a path to deep inside the body.

Given the initial cluster at the California ophthalmologist’s office, investigators suspected an eye care product was the culprit, though that hypothesis was complicated by the fact that the infections at the long-term care facilities were mainly found in the lungs.īut it wasn’t impossible.

Rare virus has already killed several in Equatorial GuineaĪs the year went on, other reports of drug-resistant Pseudomonas came in, including a Washington man who died with a bloodstream infection. “That made us start thinking that this was some kind of a product,” said Maroya Walters, the CDC official supervising the investigation. County health investigators thought the cases there might be due to some kind of equipment contamination at the eye doctor’s office.īut that suspicion faded in early October, when genetic testing showed the clusters in California, Connecticut and Utah were all caused by the same bacteria strain - a version of the germ that hadn’t been seen anywhere before. While the patients had the bacteria, none actually got sick, said Sarah Willardson of the Davis County Health Department. In Davis County, Utah, north of Salt Lake City, the first of six cases was reported to the CDC in August.

Eventually, the bacteria was found in 25 patients from five nursing homes in different parts of the state, said Christopher Boyle, a spokesperson for Connecticut’s health department. In Connecticut, the first case was in June. Over the summer, Pseudomonas outbreaks were seen at long-term care facilities in two other states. Nigeria confirms diphtheria outbreak 25 dead in one state

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