A superbug that can not be treated with even the strongest of last-resort antibiotics has just been reported for the first time in the United States.
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The strain of bacteria, a gene called mcr-1, was found in a Pennsylvanian woman last month, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
But it does mean that those who get the superbug wouldn’t even have that last resort available to them, and this bacteria can spread quickly through hospitals and into the public.
The long-dreaded arrival of superbugs on U.S. soil has just been confirmed by doctors after an American patient infected by powerful strain of bacteria exhibited strong resistance to antibiotics.
According to a report by CNN, 49-year-old woman from Pennsylvania appeared to have traces of a rare E. coli strain, the first of its kind to be discovered in the US.
“It is the end of the road for antibiotics unless we act urgently”, Tom Frieden, M.D. and CDC director, said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, there were two million antibiotic resistant infections in 2013. The drug has been used against hard-to-treat bacteria that resist one of the last lines of defense.
“This is another piece of a really nasty puzzle that we didn’t want to see here”, said Dr. Beth Bell, who oversees CDC’s emerging infectious diseases programs, the AP reported. But this particular gene could likely be found in any bacteria, not just E. coli, which is what makes it so unsafe.
The authors of the study said this alarming discovery “heralds the emergence of a truly pan-drug resistant bacteria”.
A publication of the American Society for Microbiology – Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy – featured the study, which stated that the mcr-1 gene with resistance to colistin had found its way into the superbug.
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A pig in the USA was also found to have an antibiotic-resistant strain of E.coli – but there is no link to the Pennsylvania case. American health officials said Thursday that colistin-resistant E. coli has been found in a pig in the United States, but added there was no apparent connection to the Pennsylvania woman, the AP reported. What the scientists fear, however, is the likelihood of antibiotic superbugs evolving into other and more terrible bacteria strain.
