'It's everywhere around us': Deadly bacteria makes its way across the midwest

At least twenty people have succumbed to the disease.

A common and usually harmless bacteria has resulted in at least 20 deaths in the Midwest. Meanwhile, 57 people have been diagnosed with the bacterial infection, which originated in Illinois and has since traveled to Wisconsin and Michigan.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Dr. Nirav Shah, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, told CBS News: "It's a bacteria that exists normally in the environment. It exists in water and soil. It's everywhere around us."

The bacteria, called "Elizabethkingia," leads to a serious infection that has killed at least twenty people so far.

According to the CDC, Elizabethginkia is usually diagnosed only 5-10 times each year and is reported in small, localized outbreaks.

Treatment is usually a round of antibiotics; however, the strain responsible for the current outbreak requires specific antibiotics and anyone experiencing symptoms of the infection should seek immediate medical attention.

Symptoms include shortness of breath, fever, chills or cellulitis, but only a lab test can confirm whether a person is infected.

Those at risk are people with low or impaired immune systems, the elderly and babies.

According to CNN, of the 57 Wisconsin patients diagnosed with Elizabethkingia, eighteen died and one had "at least one serious underlying illness."

Most of those infected were over 65-years-old.

It is currently unknown whether the deaths were caused by the infection alone, if it was due to a preexisting condition or if the combination of both led to the eighteen deaths.

In a statement released Tuesday, the Illinois Department of Public Health stated: "The majority of the infections identified to date have been bloodstream infections, but some patients have had Elizabethkingia isolated from other sites, such as their respiratory systems or joints."

As the infection spreads, the CDC and Illinois state investigators continue to investigate the several questions the new strain of Elizabethkingia has brought to light.

"How is it transmitted?" Shah asked. "How is it spread? What sort of diseases does it cause and how can we manage it? Those are very intense areas of investigation right now."

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