N.M. baby dies from illness tied to formula

Second infant is hospitalized with same rare infection

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updated 2:04 p.m. ET Dec. 1, 2008

SANTA FE, N.M. - The New Mexico Health Department says a baby has died and another has been hospitalized due to a rare infection.

Both babies had been fed powdered formula and other foods. They had different strains of the bacteria Enterobacter sakazakii (Ehn Teroh' bac ter Sah kah zah' kee).

The worrisome germ can cause meningitis, bloodstream infections or a deadly intestinal inflammation in newborns, especially premature infants or others with weakened immune systems.

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Infant infections with the germ have been associated with contaminated powdered formula products, but other environmental sources of contamination are possible, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said.

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