Health Experts Dread the Advent of Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs
So here's the lowdown on the current predicament that health officials have found themselves into. A 49-year-old patient from Pennsylvania was found to be carrying a strain of bacteria that was resistant to a type of antibiotic called colistin.
Colistin is often referred to as a "last resort drug" because it is not used too often because of its possible side-effects, but is the only antibiotic that could work on CRE superbugs, a type of bacteria that is almost resistant to any other type of antibiotics.
Now, imagine if this CRE superbugs can get their hands on this Mcr-1 gene, then we could be looking at a fusion, which is a perfect recipe for disaster. The fortified superbugs would become completely invincible and a person who will contract these bacteria resistant to any antibiotics known to man will be totally helpless, as per NBC News.
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The case of the woman in Pennsylvania isn't necessarily alarming on its own. The colistin-resistant strain could still be treated with other antibiotics. But, the thought of the Mcr-1 gene being passed on from one bacteria to another, particularly, between superbugs like CREs is what makes the health officials worried sick, no pun intended.
"It basically shows us that the end of the road isn't very far away for antibiotics -- that we may be in a situation where we have patients in our intensive care units, or patients getting urinary-tract infections for which we do not have antibiotics," said CDC Director Tom Frieden as quoted by Washington Post.
The call of the health officials for the public and government attention to be brought upon the concept of antibiotic resistance by some bacteria is not unfounded. According to the data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are more than two million people in the U.S. who gets infected by these drug-resistant germs every year. And, what's even worse, 23,000 lives are lost because of these infections.
And, because of this recent development, scientists fear the possibility of another era where millions of people are dying from infections, such as pneumonia, pretty much like in the pre-antibiotic era.
"This is definitely alarming," according to David Hyun of the Pew Charitable Trust, who spearheads an antibiotic-resistance project. "The fact that we found it in the United States confirms our suspicions and adds urgency to actions we need to work on antibiotic stewardship and surveillance for this type of resistance."
