Antibiotic Superbugs Have Just Reached the US
The long-dreaded arrival of superbugs on US soil has just been confirmed by doctors after an American patient infected by powerful strain of bacteria exhibited strong resistance to antibiotics.
According to a report by CNN, 49-year-old woman from Pennsylvania appeared to have traces of a rare E. coli strain, the first of its kind to be discovered in the US. Doctors say that the superbug seemed unaffected by Colistin, the last known resort that doctors use when all other antibiotics fail.
This is the first time a Colistin-resistant E.Coli strain has been found in the US. Previously, public health authorities around the world were alarmed over the discovery of Colistin-resistant superbug in pigs that affected a small number of people in China. The superbug also surfaced in Europe and other parts of the world.
"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," CDC Director Tom Frieden said as quoted in an interview by the Washington Post.
Despite the superbug scare, doctors allayed a possible widespread fear as the recently discovered E.Coli strain is not exactly dangerous nor will it result to an epidemic. What the scientists fear, however, is the likelihood of antibiotic superbugs evolving into other and more dreadful bacteria strain. According to statistics by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 2 million Americans contract antibiotic-resistant infections resulting to 23, 000 deaths per year. The numbers could explode once the genes mutate into deadlier strains.
According to Reuters, the rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs is attributed to a number of factors including the rampant antibiotic over-prescription by doctors and the hesitation of drug firms to invest more R&D resources into developing anti-superbug treatments because of a deemed unprofitability of such medications in the market compared to other drugs.
