Bacteria found in 11 patients at a Maryland hospital were genetically matched to samples from the hospital's own water system, according to an investigation published in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
The organism is Mycobacterium abscessus, a rapidly growing nontuberculous mycobacterium that resists most standard antibiotics and can take months of combination therapy to treat. Hospital infection prevention staff notified the Maryland Department of Health in June 2024 after 10 patients returned positive cultures, and retrospective case finding brought the total to 11.
