Bacteria Resistant To Last Resort Antibiotics Discovered In United States

An antibiotic-resistant superbug has been recently discovered in the U.S. after a Pennsylvania woman exhibited traces of a rare E.Coli strain that resisted antibiotics including Colistin. Again, so far she is the only confirmed case in the US and doctors are confident the infection has been contained.

For the first time, doctors have diagnosed a patient in the USA with a superbug resistant to the so-called antibiotic of last resort, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

A 49-year old woman was infected with CRE, or carbepemen-resistant enterobacteraceae. So, how this Pennsylvania woman contracted the bacteria, is still unknown. However, authorities say she had not travelled outside the US within the past five months. The infection was reported on Thursday in a study appearing in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology.

When superbugs, some of which can claim the lives of 50 per cent of their infectants, fail to react to the majority of antibiotics, health experts resort to a super-antibiotic called colistin but even this has been rendered useless.

“The work also highlights the promiscuity of bacteria, which are able to quickly and easily share resistance mechanisms between species”.

“(This) heralds the emergence of truly pan-drug resistant bacteria”, the study said.

Here’s a quick look at the “superbug” and what mcr-1 is.

The discovery of the colistin-resistant strain is the first of its kind recorded in a person from the United States.

A microbiologist and senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Gail Cassell said, “It is risky and we would assume it can be spread quickly, even in a hospital environment if it is not well contained”.

“Colistin is one of the last efficacious antibiotics for the treatment of highly resistant bacteria. We have that genetic element that would allow for bacteria that are resistant to every antibiotic”.

“We need to do a very comprehensive job of protecting antibiotics so we can have them and our children can have them”, Dr Frieden said, calling for more research into new antibiotics and better stewardship of existing drugs.

“The medicine cabinet is empty for some patients”, he added.

In an interview, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden said this new development does not bode well for patients.