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MONDAY, April 8, 2019 (HealthDay News) – Experts are sounding the alarm on a group of four hospitalized patients in New York carrying a form of antibiotic-resistant "superbact" antibiotic.
Patient-hosted E. coli has an antibiotic resistance gene called mcr-1, which gives the bacterium resistance to colistin, an antibiotic of last resort against certain multidrug-resistant infections, according to a team of Dr. Anne-Catrin Uhlemann . .
In addition, three of the four patients had no E-symptoms. Coli – increasing the risk that antibiotic-resistant bacteria will be pbaded on to other people without our knowledge, reported Uhlemann and colleagues April 8 in the newspaper Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy.
"Although the mcr-1 has been described in other parts of the world, it is very rare in the United States," Uhlemann said in a press release. But the new report highlights the undetected spread potential of E. Drug-resistant coli in US hospitals, she said. Uhlemann is an badociate professor at the College of Physicians and Surgeons Vagelos of Columbia University.
An emergency physician not part of the study said the news was troubling.
"The mcr-1 gene confers resistance to colistin, one of the antibiotics" of last resort "for the treatment of gram-negative bacterial infections," said Dr. Robert Glatter, who works at Lenox Hill Hospital's New York.
The gene "has now been found not only in E. coli, but also in Salmonella, Klebsiella and different subtypes of Enterobacter bacteria. In fact, this gene has been detected in bacteria in more than 30 countries on five continents since 2017, "he said.
Sequencing of the entire genome revealed that E. coli bacteria in each patient were closely related, but not identical.
"We then looked at the clinical course of each individual and noted that the first patient had an infection, while the other three were carrying only the bacteria in their faeces," Uhlemann said.
In these latter cases, "none of these three patients developed an infection with this bacteria," she said.
The study was motivated by concerns about increasing levels of antibiotic resistance, a growing threat. Scientists predict that by 2050, antibiotic-resistant infections could cause more deaths than cancer.
According to Glatter, the undetected spread of bacteria with mcr-1 "could become a major threat to human existence if we fail to contain its spread." He believes that the new report "is a wake-up call for the threat posed by antibiotic resistance to human health".
The new findings "represent the oldest documented group of mcr-1 badociated with healthcare known in the United States, and predate a recent report that took place in 2017," said Uhlemann.
Antibiotic abuse in health care and agriculture contributes to the current dilemma of antibiotic resistance, "as germs learn to bypbad life-saving drugs, Glatter said .
Overuse can occur when patients ask, and doctors provide antibiotics for viral infections such as influenza, for example. Medications are only effective against bacteria, not viruses.
More information
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have more knowledge about antibiotic resistance.
SOURCES: Robert Glatter, MD, Emergency Physician, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York; Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy, press release of April 8, 2019
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