--- title: Wisconsin Investigates Mysterious Bacteria Outbreak description: It may have killed 18 people canonical: https://time.com/4247330/wisconsin-bacteria-infection-outbreak/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-04T01:12:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:36:59.149Z article:section: Health og:title: Wisconsin Investigates Mysterious Bacteria Outbreak og:description: It may have killed 18 people og:url: https://time.com/4247330/wisconsin-bacteria-infection-outbreak/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Wisconsin Investigates Mysterious Bacteria Outbreak twitter:description: It may have killed 18 people twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Wisconsin Investigates Mysterious Bacteria Outbreak by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Mar 4, 2016 1:12 AM UTC by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Mar 4, 2016 1:12 AM UTC Wisconsin officials said Thursday they are investigating an outbreak caused by a rarely seen bacteria that’s made 44 mostly elderly people sick and possibly killed 18 of them. The bacteria’s called Elizabethkingia anophelis, and it’s been linked with mostly hospital outbreaks. But the Wisconsin cases don’t have any clear links yet and they have called in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for help. “The Elizabethkingia infection has been detected in 44 patients located in southeastern and southern Wisconsin,” state health officer Karen McKeown [said in a statement.](https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/disease/elizabethkingia.htm) “The majority of patients are over the age of 65 years, and all have serious. . . [_Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News_](http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/wisconsin-investigates-mysterious-infection-n531236?cid=par-time%5F20160304) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4247330/wisconsin-bacteria-infection-outbreak/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4247330/wisconsin-bacteria-infection-outbreak/"},"headline":"Wisconsin Investigates Mysterious Bacteria Outbreak","datePublished":"2016-03-04T01:12:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:36:59.149Z","description":"It may have killed 18 people","url":"https://time.com/4247330/wisconsin-bacteria-infection-outbreak/","keywords":["Infectious Disease"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/infectious-disease/","name":"Infectious Disease"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4247330/wisconsin-bacteria-infection-outbreak/","name":"Wisconsin Investigates Mysterious Bacteria Outbreak"}}]}] ```