"Superbug Gene Detected In A Second Person In The U.S."

"Researchers have found bacteria resistant to the antibiotic of last resort in a sample from a second patient in the United States, according to a study published Monday. The patient had surgery at a New York hospital last year, researchers said.

The news comes after researchers reported in late May that a patient in Pennsylvania carried a strain of E. coli bacteria that was resistant to the antibiotic colistin, the antibiotic that doctors use to treat patients who have infections that don't respond to other drugs.

In both cases, the bacteria carried a gene, known as mcr-1, that allows the organism to withstand colistin. The Pennsylvania case was the first time this colistin-resistance gene had shown up in the United States after its identification in China last fall. Health officials and infectious disease experts around the world have sounded the alarm because the gene has since been found in more than two dozen countries around the world, in animals as well as people."

Lena H. Sun reports for the Washington Post July 11, 2016.

SEE ALSO:

"A 'Slow Catastrophe' Unfolds As The Golden Age Of Antibiotics Comes To An End" (Los Angeles Times)