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.
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Dr. Burgin said, “This particular bacteria seems to be resistant to all known antibiotics that we have available to us so since we have not had any new drugs developed in several years we have no defense against it”.
Dr Tom Frieden, director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told reporters in Washington: “It is the end of the road for antibiotics unless we act urgently”.
Even more distressing, as one report suggests, is that this kind of infection can result in the deaths of half the patients who become infected.
A deadly superbug that health officials have always been anxious about has entered the United States, researchers at the US Military HIV Research Program announced, in a report by Fox News. However, researchers are concerned that the colistin-resistant gene carried by the bacteria, known as mcr-1, could pass this trait to other bacteria that already demonstrate antibiotic resistant properties.
The first transferrable gene for colistin-resistance was discovered in 2015 in China.
Antibiotic resistance, or antimicrobial resistance, occurs when microorganisms develop the ability to escape the effects of drugs that once had the ability to kill them. She is being treated for a urinary tract infection at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
The resistance can spread because it arises from loose genetic material that bacteria typically share with one another.
In this latest case in Pennsylvania, the CDC is working with state health officials to interview the woman and her family to try to figure out how she might have picked up the strain.
“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of mcr-1 in the United States of America”, the authors say.
The particular bacteria was previously identified in other infections outside the USA, for instance in Europe, Canada and China. “It’s a wake-up call for all of us to question whether we need antibiotics, and also for the government to really push these new things in the pipeline to help us”, Agus said on “CBS This Morning” Thursday. They warned that they were in the early stages of testing and that continued surveillance was needed to determine the true prevalence of mcr-1 in the population.
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“The medicine cabinet is empty for some patients”, says Frieden.
