The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health recently released data showing that more than 350 cases of potentially dangerous drug-resistant bacteria have been reported at several health care facilities in Southern California.
The bacteria — called carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, or CRKP — spreads through person-to-person contact and is resistant to nearly all antimicrobial agents. Patients in long-term care facilities, people undergoing prolonged hospitalizations and those taking long courses of antibiotics are most susceptible to the infection.
In a California Healthline Special Report by Mina Kim, experts discussed how hospitals are taking steps to combat CRKP and other drug-resistant bacteria.
The Special Report includes comments from:
- Julia Hallisy, co-founder of the Empowered Patient Coalition; and
- Jim Lott, executive vice president of the Hospital Association of Southern California;
- Greg Moran, physician at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center (Kim, California Healthline, 4/13).
The complete transcript of this Special Report is available as a PDF.