A ‘superbug’ emerges in China to remind us that antibiotics won’t last forever - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/11/19/a-superbug-emerges-in-china-to-remind-us-that-antibiotics-wont-last-
In general, I do my best not to alarm you. But antibiotic resistant bacteria are alarming — and you should be afraid.
According to a study published in Lancet Infectious Diseases, a gene dubbed MCR-1 is becoming more common in bacteria found in China. MCR-1 gives bacteria the ability to resist antibiotics called polymyxins. These harsh antibiotics are considered a last line of defense — a treatment when bacteria have shown resistance to everything else. But with MCR-1 in tow, bacteria can thwart our most aggressive drugs.
That means they’re basically invincible. And MCR-1 could theoretically end up jumping to all manner of bacteria.
“Polymyxins were the last class of antibiotics in which resistance was incapable of spreading from cell to cell,” co-author Jian-Hua Liu, a professor at Southern Agricultural University in Guangzhou, told the AFP.
So much for that.
The researchers tested slaughterhouse pigs and raw meat from markets for the gene. MCR-1 was found in 20 percent of the sampled pigs and 15 percent of the meat, and in increasing abundance from year-to-year. The gene was also found in E. coli K. pneumoniae samples taken from 16 of 1,322 patients at two Chinese hospitals.
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Emergence of plasmid-mediated colistin resistance mechanism MCR-1 in animals and human beings in China: a microbiological and molecular biological study - The Lancet Infectious Diseases
▻http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(15)00424-7/abstract
Interpretation
The emergence of MCR-1 heralds the breach of the last group of antibiotics, polymyxins, by plasmid-mediated resistance. Although currently confined to China, MCR-1 is likely to emulate other global resistance mechanisms such as NDM-1. Our findings emphasise the urgent need for coordinated global action in the fight against pan-drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria.