Gov. Scott Walker has approved nine new employees in the state Department of Health Services to investigate the outbreak of Elizabethkingia bacterial infections in Wisconsin.
“Our team at DHS’s Division of Public Health has been working aggressively to locate the source of Elizabethkingia outbreak since the first notification,” Walker said in a prepared statement on Friday. “We need to make sure we have the resources to address the risk and do whatever we can to keep Wisconsinites safe.”
There have been 57 confirmed cases of Elizabethkingia infections reported to the state Division of Public Health since the outbreak began in November. Nineteen people have died in Wisconsin as a result of being infected.
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The state has been working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene and local health departments to find the source of the bacteria and to prevent further infections.
The nine new employees will help with that work. They will also study and prepare responses to other current public health risks, including the Zika virus and tuberculosis.
The state says the recent outbreak of Elizabethkingia is the largest ever documented in the United States. Most people affected are over the age of 65, and have underlying health conditions.
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