LANSING, MI (AP)-- Health officials have confirmed that a western Michigan resident died after contracting a bloodstream infection matching a Wisconsin outbreak.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says Thursday that it was notified March 11 by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the match. The person was an older adult with underlying health conditions.
Wisconsin officials say 17 people with infections caused by Elizabethkingia bacteria have died since November and that the outbreak is the largest recorded in published literature.
The bacteria is common in the environment, but rarely causes infections.
CDC spokeswoman Melissa Brower says "it shouldn't be assumed" the person from Michigan had been to Wisconsin because the states are in the same geographic region.
