Bacteria Resistant To Last Resort Antibiotics Discovered In United States

(Photo : Getty Images/Handout) For the first time researchers have identified the presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria carried by a person in the United States.

For the first time researchers have identified the presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria carried by a person in the United States.

The bacteria is resistant to antibiotics used as a last resort, when no other options are available for treatment - a critical development that could mean the end of antibiotic treatments as we know it, writes The Washington Post.

The resistant bacteria strain was discovered in the urine of a 49-year-old woman from Pennsylvania. Researchers from the Defense Department determined that a strain of E. coli bacteria, which tested as resistant to the antibiotic colistin, was found in the woman's urine sample, according to a new study. The discovery "heralds the emergence of a truly pan-drug resistant bacteria," the authors wrote in the study.

Colistin is an antibiotic used as a last resort in the treatment of life-threatening superbugs that are hard to treat, including the CRE bacteria family, which health officials have described as a "nightmare bacteria".

In patients infected by this superbug, it can prove fatal in up to 50 percent of cases. The CRE superbug has been presented as one of the most pressing public health threats in the United States by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

U.S. health officials said that the discovery of the superbug in Pennsylvania should not be cause for alarm as this particular strain is treatable through other forms of antibiotics. However, researchers are concerned that the colistin-resistant gene carried by the bacteria, known as mcr-1, could pass this trait to other bacteria that already demonstrate antibiotic resistant properties.

The discovery of the colistin-resistant strain is the first of its kind recorded in a person from the United States. A strain of colistin resistant bacteria was found in pigs and raw pork products in China in November by Chinese and British researchers. It was also found to be carried by a few individuals in the country. The presence of the potentially fatal strain was later identified in Europe.

The study was published in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology.