“The Department of Defense released information about a woman with no travel outside of the USA who is the first human documented case in the United States of having a urinary tract infection, or any infection, with an organism resistant to every antibiotic”, said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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The 49-year-old was being treated for a urinary tract infection when a common variety of E Coli bacteria was found in her gut. But health officials fear that if the resistance spreads to other bacteria, the country may soon see supergerms impervious to all known antibiotics.
“Urinary tract infections, pneumonia, can cause blood stream infections, as well”.
US health officials said that the discovery of the superbug in Pennsylvania should not be cause for alarm as this particular strain is treatable through other forms of antibiotics. The bacteria, though resistant to colistin and some other antibiotics, were not resistant to carbapenems. The CDC and health officials from Pennsylvania are now investigating how and where the woman might have gotten the strain as she has not gone overseas recently. But the DOD says it’s working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and local health departments to prevent this superbug’s spread.
According to Reuters, the rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs is attributed to a number of factors including the rampant antibiotic over-prescription by doctors and the hesitation of drug firms to invest more R&D resources into developing anti-superbug treatments because of a deemed unprofitability of such medications in the market compared to other drugs. So far, the United States has not.
“The medicine cabinet is empty for some patients”, he added. The researchers see it as the discovery of the emergence of truly pan-drug resistant bacteria.
“It’s another warning, not a death star, but a very strong warning that we really do have to be careful with antibiotics and use them optimally”, said Neil Fishman, an infectious disease doctor who is associate chief medical officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. More than half of all hospitalized patients will get an antibiotic at some point during their stay.
In the United Kingdom in December, Public Health England (PHE) reported it had tested samples and also found resistance to colistin. But studies have shown that 30 percent to 50 percent of antibiotics prescribed in hospitals are unnecessary or incorrect, contributing to antibiotic resistance.
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But in the past, there wasn’t a lot of pressure on researchers and drug companies to develop new antibiotics.
