A mysterious bacterial outbreak has killed 17 people and sickened at least 54 in Wisconsin, US since November 2015, officials confirmed on Thursday, March 17, 2016. Experts say this outbreak is unprecedented. The cause of the sickness is bacteria called Elizabethkingia Anopheles. It is commonly found in the environment, but it rarely infects humans and is not known for making people sick on this scale. If the bacterium makes its way to a person's bloodstream, it can cause fever, shortness of breath, chills, bacterial infection of the skin, and sepsis, which can be deadly. Michael Bell, deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion said the agency sees a handful of Elizabethkingia infections around the country each year, but the outbreaks rarely involve more than a couple of cases at a time. "To have dozens of cases at once — and more than a third of them possibly fatal - is startling." "Wisconsin cases are the largest