The federal government is mobilizing to try to stop the spread of a deadly superbug that can’t be killed by antibiotics and was found in the U.S. for the first time.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday it is working with the Department of Defense and local health agencies to identify people who may have come into contact with a Pennsylvania woman who came down with the version of E. coli. No other cases have been identified in Pennsylvania or in other parts of the U.S.
The CDC said that E. coli bacteria containing the mrc-1 gene were found in the woman’s urine sample. The gene makes bacteria resistant to the antibiotic colistin, which is a “last-resort” drug used when all other antibiotics have failed to kill the infection.
The CDC emphasized that the E. coli bacteria is not resistant to all antibiotics. More to the point, the mcr-1 gene is what to worry about.
The gene has the ability to resist colistin and it can share such a colistin resistance with other bacteria and “raise the risk that pan-resistant bacteria could develop,” the agency said.
Federal investigators are identifying close contacts, “including household and healthcare contacts, of the Pennsylvania patient to determine whether any of them may have been at risk for transmission of the bacteria.”
Compounding the problem is that the woman has not traveled outside of the country for more than six months.
The gene emerged in China last year, and the CDC has been on the lookout for it in the U.S.
