The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control are warning health officials about deadly bacteria on the rise across the country.

"We need doctors, nurses, other health care workers and people who lead health facilities to work together to take rapid action to stop CRE from spreading further now," CDC Director Tom Frieden said.

The bacteria usually live harmlessly in the gut but can cause pneumonia, and urinary tract and bloodstream infections if they get into other parts of the bodies of patients with weakened immune systems.

The CDC said the germs can kill 50 percent of patients who get bloodstream infections from them.

"It's scary," Frazier Woods said as he and his sister Vanessa Foster waited for an appointment at Gaston Memorial.

The germs are resistant to all or nearly all antibiotics and they can transfer that resistance to other bacteria, too.

"We're doing surveillance constantly," said Vicki Allen, manager of CaroMont's Infection Prevention & Control Department. "Our goal is obviously for zero infections."

The CDC said people in critical care with weak immune systems, people who have devices like IVs or catheters, and people in nursing facilities are most at risk.

Officials with Carolinas Healthcare System said they are also testing other patients, including transplant patients and those who may have been recently hospitalized in foreign countries.

The germs are usually spread by person-to-person contact, which is why hand-washing is a big part of prevention.

The North Carolina Department of Health said in 2012, CRE caused three bloodstream infections and 12 other infections. No one died.

Health officials know of no cases so far in 2013, but doctors and hospitals aren't required to report cases to the state.

CaroMont Health, Carolinas Healthcare System, and Novant Health are all taking steps to protect patients, which includes isolating patients with CRE, requiring gowns and gloves in the room, enforcing strict hand-washing guidelines, and special room cleaning.

Foster said she'll be even more vigilant about washing her hands.

"You can't get away from germs. You just really can't," she said. "So you've got to learn to protect yourself "

Information for Patients from the CDC, click here. 

CDC Guide on CRE, click here.