All of the children in the ByHeart outbreak have received the medication, the CDC said. The treatment is delivered in vials that cost $69,300 apiece, California officials said.

There is little danger of infant formula shortages because ByHeart represents a small share of the market. That's far different from the crises in late 2021 and 2022, when four infants were sickened by a different germ after consuming formula made by Abbott Nutrition. Two of the babies died. No direct link was found between the Abbott products and the infections caused by a different germ, cronobacter sakazakii, but FDA officials closed the company's Michigan plant after contamination and other problems were detected.