LA County will require 'superbug' reports

A new law in California will require hospitals in Los Angeles County to report incidence of certain “superbugs,” the Los Angeles Times reported. California is one of roughly half the U.S. states that had not required the reporting in the past.

The infection is caused by a bacteria known as carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae and kills up to half the people who contract it. But an L.A. Times report earlier in the week showed that CDC estimates of its incidence of 75,000 per year were low due to hospital underreporting. The report also found that when patients died of the bacterial infection, physicians listed the patients’ original illness as cause of death on death certificates, further blurring accurate counts.

The county had stopped requiring reporting of the bug in 2012.

Regulators hope increasing reporting will help track the spread of such infections better and provide insight on how to prevent or slow them. Los Angeles County is noted as a particularly high-incidence area for the bug.

Check out the L.A. Times to follow one patient’s experience with a carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae infection.