A Minnesota boy has been confirmed as the seventh victim of an antibiotic-resistant "superbug" at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center.
The Washington Post reported that the boy died of a bloodstream infection September 7. Officials confirmed the death to the paper Friday.
The death was the first this year that could be directly to the strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria. It initially arrived in August of 2011, and was carried by a New York woman who came to NIH for a lung transplant. Prior to the latest fatality, 17 patients fell ill and 11 died. Hospital officials attributed six of those deaths to the superbug itself.
The Post reported that the boy arrived at NIH in April after experiencing complications from an earlier bone marrow transplant. Officials told the paper that the boy had a severe genetic defect that compromised his immune system. In addition, the boy's risk of contracting the strain was increased by the drugs he was given to combat the complications. Swabs showed that the boy, whose identifying information was not released, had acquired the bug by July.
The NIH first disclosed the presence of the 'superbug' last month.
