2nd US patient carrying antibiotic-resistant ‘superbug’ found in New York (MCR-1)

[Gert van der Hoek]

28 Jun, 2016

A second patient carrying the antibiotic-resistant “superbug” has been identified in New York, one month after a woman carrying the gene was discovered in Pennsylvania.

The mcr-1 superbug gene makes bacteria highly resistant to a last-resort class of antibiotics, sparking fears of a possible “end of the road” for the crucial drugs.

Scientists identified the gene in the patient’s sample of E. coli bacteria, a finding published Monday in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

The diagnosis follows on from the first discovery that proved the superbug had reached the US, which was found in April but shared in the same microbiology journal in May. In that instance, a 49-year-old woman in Pennsylvania showed symptoms of a urinary tract infection, but it was later determined that the patient carried a strain of E. coli.

The unique superbug is resistant to the antibiotic called colistin, a drug used to treat multi-drug-resistant infections and usually a last resort because of its side effects.

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[Gert van der Hoek]

Colistin-Resistant Gene Detected In The US For The Second Time

June 27, 2016

The authors of the study first examined 13,525 Escherichia coli and 7,481 Klebsiella pneumoniae clinical strains that have been gathered from hospitals in the Latin America, Asia-Pacific region, North America and Europe in 2015. They discovered that 390 or 1.9 percent were resistant to colistin and 19 of these isolates were tested positive for mcr-1.

The 19 isolates discovered in ten countries. On the other hand, only one, an isolate of E.coli was originally recovered in 2015 from a patient in New York. The first detection of the mcr-1-positive E.coli was recognized from a patient in Pennsylvania.