How a Usually Harmless Bacteria Ended Up Killing 18 People in Wisconsin
An outbreak shows the slippery slope between benign and deadly.
The long scientific names of bacteria often tell a story of their discovery. Over time, however, the names can get a little awkward in light of new revelations.
Consider Elizabethkingia anophelis—a largely unremarkable microbe named after the pioneering microbiologist Elizabeth O. King, who discovered the genus, and the Anopheles mosquito, in whose gut it was first found in the Gambia.
In 2016, this bacterium was suddenly all over the news in Wisconsin. People were getting sick with blood infections and dying. The victims were: 18 in Wisconsin, one in Michigan, and another in Illinois.
