According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a 49-year-old woman Pennsylvania woman was diagnosed with a rare strain of E. coli that proved to be something called plasmid-mediated colistin resistance, or mcr-1. Tests confirming the woman’s infection were done by Walter Reed National Military Medical Center researchers, who reported on the case. Colistin – The antibiotic of last resort and MCR-1 The antibiotic Colistin is reserved for particularly unsafe pathogens, including a family of bacteria known as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE.
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The CDC said it was working with the health department of Pennsylvania to speak to the patient and figure out how she may have been infected.
The strain of bacteria was isolated from her urine.
The World Health Organization (WHO) states that antibiotic resistance is “one of the biggest threats to global health today”.
The case was reported Thursday in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology.
“The Department of Health is aware of the human case of MCR-1 in Pennsylvania”, the department said in a statement.
Colistin, the antibiotic used, is usually taken when all other drugs fail because of its harsh side effects.
The journal report said she was seen April 26 and had not traveled for five months.
The strain detected in the woman is still treatable using some other antibiotics but experts fear the mcr-1 gene found in the bacteria can spread to other types of bacteria that are already resistant to other types of antibiotics.
Commenting on the reports Dr Nasia Safdar, from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said: “The results are very concerning”.
The CDC says more than 2 million people are infected by drug-resistant germs each year, and 23,000 die of their infections.
The gene for resistance to colistin was first found in China, where the drug is used in pig and poultry farming. Recent estimates by the CDC indicate one in three antibiotics prescribed in the US are medically unnecessary for the conditions they are meant to treat. Compounding the problem has been a dearth in the development of new antibiotics able to combat these anti-resistant pathogens. “This is not where we need to be”.
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Other antibiotics were eventually effective in treating the bug, but what is worrying researchers is the gene that made the strain of E. coli drug resistant.
