(Dr. Priya Sampathkumar, epidemiologist, Mayo Clinic)("The outbreak is with a bug called Klebsiella pneumoniae, which is a bug that all of us carry around, usually in our Gi-tract. This outbreak was caused by a very, very resistant strain of that same bug.//These bugs can develop resistance to the commonly used antibiotics and that's what's happened in this case. And then once the bug is resistant, it sort of has a survival advantage and then it gets transmitted from patient to patient. And it causes serious problems// The most important defense against infections is sort of your skin integrity. So when you have skin, when you have either skin breakdown from wounds or if you have devices that are put into your body that go through your skin, like central lines that are used to access the blood stream; those things increase your risk of infection.//So, it's very, very important that you, as a patient you ask is this device really necessary how long does it need to stay in, when can it come out. And B, talk to your health care professionals and say, are you washing your hands, are you, before you come in contact with me or any of my medical devices//Generally, wit the flu season after an individual has influenza they are at higher risk for bacterial infections such as pneumonia after that. So, it's possible that we will see a spike in infections. Now this bug has been around for a number of years in the United States and hasn't caused big widespread outbreaks, like we've seen with other organisms. So, it's hard to predict. But, it's a possibility ")(****END****) VIDEO PRODUCER: NHawkins---------------------------VIDEO SOURCE: AP Television-----------------------VIDEO APPROVAL: DBruns----------------------------VIDEO RESTRICTIONS: None----------------------------------MARKET EMBARGO (S): None--------------------------------SCRIPT/WIRE SOURCE: a0712 BC-US--Superbug Outbreak