Two patients at the Ronald Reagan Medical Center at the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA) have died due to equipment infected with a "superbug."

According to NBC Southern California, 179 patients at the UCLA hospital are at risk and have been notified as such. Health officials at the school said the patients were exposed to the drug-resistant bacteria from Oct. 2014 to Jan. 2015.

The Westwood Hospital conducted an investigation into how the Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) "superbug" bacteria spread. The at-risk patients were being treated for digestive illnesses of all kind and doctors had used a scope to go down their throats in a hardly intrusive method.

"The UCLA Health System has notified more than 100 patients that they may have been infected by a 'superbug' bacteria during complex endoscopic procedures that took place between October 2014 and January 2015. The patients are being offered free home testing kits that would be analyzed at UCLA," the school said in a statement. "UCLA sterilized the scopes according to the standards stipulated by the manufacturer.

"However, an internal investigation determined that carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) bacteria may have been transmitted during a procedure that uses this specialized scope to diagnose and treat pancreaticobiliary diseases and may have been a contributing factor in the death of two patients. A total of seven patients were infected."

UCLA provided patients determined to potentially have a risk of infection with free do-it-yourself testing kits.

"Similar CRE exposures using the same type of scope recently have been reported in other hospitals in the United States," the school's statement read. "The two scopes involved with the infection were immediately removed and UCLA is now utilizing a decontamination process that goes above and beyond manufacturer and national standards. Both the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and the California Department of Public Health were notified as soon as the bacteria were detected."