Dr Frieden, speaking at a National Press Club luncheon in Washington, DC, said the infection was not controlled even by colistin, an antibiotic that is reserved for use against “nightmare bacteria”.
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The 49-year-old woman in Pennsylvania has recovered but USA health officials warned of the risk of it being “the end of the road” for antibiotics.
The infection was reported Thursday in a study appearing in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology. The infection was caused by E. coli bacteria that had a gene that made them resistant to an antibiotic known as colistin. A culture of her urine was forwarded to a laboratory at the army’s Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where the presence of the bacteria E. coli with the mcr-1 gene was discovered.
United Kingdom health officials have repeatedly warned of the threat of antibiotic resistance and are urging Global Positioning System not to prescribe antibiotics unless necessary.
Right up there with climate change and increased water scarcity is the issue of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and one particularly awful variety of it – bacteria resistant to so-called “last resort” antibiotics, the very last-ditch solutions for resistant bugs.
Dr. Tom Frieden, chief of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in a report from NBC News, said the entry of a bacteria that developed resistance to a certain antibiotic could spell disaster if no drastic measures will be taken.
Each year in the United States, at least 2 million people become infected with other kinds of bacteria that can’t be beat with most antibiotics, and at least 23,000 people die each year as a result of those infections, according to the CDC. But a new report indicates the end of antibiotics could be closer than we thought.
Plasmid-mediated colistin resistance, also known as MCR-1, was detected in a Pennsylvania resident.
“The medicine cabinet is empty for some patients”, he added.
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In the meantime, Cassell said people can best protect themselves from the superbug and from other bacteria resistant to antibiotics by thoroughly washing their hands, washing fruits and vegetables thoroughly and preparing foods appropriately. “This is not where we need to be”.
