A drug-resistant "superbug" that doctors have
been dreading has shown up in the U.S. for the first time, researchers
reported Thursday.
The bacteria has genetic changes that make it
resistant to a last-ditch antibiotic called colistin and while it had
been seen in Europe and China, no one in the U.S. had been seen with it
before.
It doesn't spell doom just yet. The mutant E. coli germ was found in
a Pennsylvania woman with symptoms of a urinary tract infection, but it
does not appear to be spreading at epidemic proportions. And it was
susceptible to other antibiotics, so the patient was not left without
any hope.
What's worrying is the gene that made the E.
coli drug-resistant. It's called mcr-1, and it is passed from one
bacteria to another. It sits on a piece of material called a plasmid,
which makes it easy for one species of bacteria to pass it along to
another species of bacteria.
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Source: NBC News
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