‘Nightmare’ bacteria found in the U.S. resists all known antibiotics [
http://inhabitat.com/nightmare-bacteria ... tibiotics/ ]
May 27, 2016
Last November researchers in China discovered a strain of bacteria that resisted all forms of antibiotics – including the “last-resort drug” colistin. Now, government officials have found the first case of an antibiotic-resistant superbug in the United States.
A 49-year-old woman in Pennsylvania went to the doctor for symptoms akin to a urinary tract infection, however the ailment did not respond to antibiotics. She had not traveled during the five months before her infection. Doctors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center obtained samples and tested them, finding they did not respond to colistin. They released a study detailing the drug-resistant bacteria.
Related: Antibiotic resistant bugs could kill 10 million people each year by 2050[
http://inhabitat.com/antibiotic-resista ... r-by-2050/ ]
The bacteria doesn’t respond to drugs because of a particular gene called mcr-1. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), mcr-1 “exists on a plasmid,” or a bit of DNA, and plasmids can travel between bacterium. The bacteria found in the woman had actually been infected with mcr-1 via a plasmid.
Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Thomas Frieden said, “The more we look at drug resistance, the more concerned we are. The medicine cabinet is empty for some patients. It is the end of the road for antibiotics unless we act urgently. We risk being in a post-antibiotic world.”
According to Reuters, both feeding antibiotics to livestock and over-prescription have contributed to the dilemma we face. Between 30 to 50 percent of antibiotics given by doctors to patients are either needless or incorrectly prescribed. Further, drug companies haven’t been willing to shell out money for research on better antibiotics because they can make more money on drugs that combat cancer or uncommon diseases.
Reuters reports that in the United States, 23,000 people already die due to antibiotic resistance every year. Last year President Obama released the National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, at which point the HHS said that it has been studying antibiotic resistance and is undertaking a “coordinated public health response.”
According to HHS and the USDA, a few ways to avoid antibiotic resistant bacteria are to thoroughly wash hands and produce, and properly cook all fish, meat, and poultry to kill bacteria.
Via Reuters
= = = = =
U.S. sees first case of bacteria resistant to last-resort antibiotic [
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-healt ... SKCN0YH2KT ]
May 27, 2016 By Ransdell Pierson and Bill Berkrot
The mcr-1 plasmid-borne colistin resistance gene has been found primarily in Escherichia coli, pictured.
Reuters/Courtesy CDC
U.S. health officials on Thursday reported the first case in the country of a patient with an infection resistant to a last-resort antibiotic, and expressed grave concern that the superbug could pose serious danger for routine infections if it spreads.
"We risk being in a post-antibiotic world," said Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, referring to the urinary tract infection of a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman who had not traveled within the prior five months.
Frieden, speaking at a National Press Club luncheon in Washington, D.C., said the bacteria was resistant to colistin, an antibiotic that is reserved for use against "nightmare bacteria."
The infection was reported Thursday in a study appearing in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology. It said the superbug itself had first been infected with a tiny piece of DNA called a plasmid, which passed along a gene called mcr-1 that confers resistance to colistin.
"(This) heralds the emergence of truly pan-drug resistant bacteria," said the study, which was conducted by the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of mcr-1 in the USA."
The patient visited a clinic on April 26 with symptoms of a urinary tract infection, according to the study, which did not describe her current condition. Authors of the study could not immediately be reached for comment.
The study said continued surveillance to determine the true frequency of the gene in the United States is critical.
"It is dangerous and we would assume it can be spread quickly, even in a hospital environment if it is not well contained," said Dr. Gail Cassell, a microbiologist and senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School.
But she said the potential speed of its spread will not be known until more is learned about how the Pennsylvania patient was infected, and how present the colistin-resistant superbug is in the United States and globally.
"MEDICINE CABINET IS EMPTY FOR SOME" In the United States, antibiotic resistance has been blamed for at least 2 million illnesses and 23,000 deaths annually.
The mcr-1 gene was found last year in people and pigs in China, raising alarm.
The potential for the superbug to spread from animals to people is a major concern, Cassell said.
For now, Cassell said people can best protect themselves from it and from other bacteria resistant to antibiotics by thoroughly washing their hands, washing fruits and vegetables thoroughly and preparing foods appropriately.
Experts have warned since the 1990s that especially bad superbugs could be on the horizon, but few drugmakers have attempted to develop drugs against them.
Frieden said the need for new antibiotics is one of the more urgent health problems, as bugs become more and more resistant to current treatments. "The more we look at drug resistance, the more concerned we are," Frieden added. "The medicine cabinet is empty for some patients. It is the end of the road for antibiotics unless we act urgently."
Overprescribing of antibiotics by physicians and in hospitals and their extensive use in food livestock have contributed to the crisis. More than half of all hospitalized patients will get an antibiotic at some point during their stay. But studies have shown that 30 percent to 50 percent of antibiotics prescribed in hospitals are unnecessary or incorrect, contributing to antibiotic resistance.
Many drugmakers have been reluctant to spend the money needed to develop new antibiotics, preferring to use their resources on medicines for cancer and rare diseases that command very high prices and lead to much larger profits.
In January, dozens of drugmakers and diagnostic companies, including Pfizer (PFE.N), Merck & Co (MRK.N), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L), signed a declaration calling for new incentives from governments to support investment in development of medicines to fight drug-resistant superbugs.
(
This story corrects headline, first and third paragraphs to show bacteria is resistant to last-resort antibiotic colistin, not all antibiotics)