Just weeks after the discovery in China of bacteria resistant to all known forms of treatment, the same strain has been found in Denmark. Except Denmark's has been around since 2012.

news.com.au

Bacteria containing mcr-1 gene resistant to all known antibiotics found in Denmark

December 7, 20159:26am

 

Lethal tummy bug ... A strain of the common e. coli bacteria resistant to all known treatments has been found in Denmark.

Network WritersNews Corp Australia Network

JUST weeks after the discovery in China of bacteria resistant to all known forms of treatment, the same strain has been found in Denmark. Worse: It’s been there since 2012.

Late last week researchers at the Technical University of Denmark announced they had found the feared ‘invulnerability’ gene among E. coli bacteria samples taken from humans and food.

The scientists had been conducting a review of a genetic database of some 3000 different E. coli samples taken since 2009.

Specifically they were seeking the mcr-1 gene, a mutation which gives bacteria a frightening resistance to the last effective family of antibiotics — colistin.

ANTIBIOTIC APOCALYPSE: A new dark age of medicine looms

 

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NewsMax Health

New Superbug Resistant to Last-line Antibiotics: Study

Sunday, 06 Dec 2015 11:19 AM

Scientists warned of the "epidemic potential" of deadly and fast-spreading bacteria resistant to last-line antibiotics.

The new superbugs, found in southern China, could erase nearly a century of antibiotic protection against killer diseases born by common germs such as E. coli, the researchers reported in a study.
"These are extremely worrying results," said Jian-Hua Liu, a professor at Southern Agricultural University in Guangzhou and co-author of the study.

Liu and colleagues found a gene, called MCR-1, that makes bacteria resistant to a class of antibiotics, known as polymyxins, used to fight superbugs.

The gene -- detected in common but deadly bacteria such as E. coli and K. pneumoniae, which causes pneumonia and blood disease -- effectively makes these bacteria invincible.

 

Even worse, MCR-1 allows the bacteria to spread easily from one strain or species to another, said the study, published in Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Until now, rare cases of resistance occurred only through mutation in individual organisms, severely limiting transmission.

"Polymyxins were the last class of antibiotics in which resistance was incapable of spreading from cell to cell," said Liu.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has already warned antimicrobial resistance may result in "a return to the pre-antibiotic era," where infections once easily cured prove fatal.

Most of the 50 to 100 million people who died during the 1918 flu pandemic -- 10 years before the discovery of penicillin -- were killed by bacterial pneumonia, not the flu virus itself.

 

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Agricultural Use Of Antibiotics Could Create Health Crisis, Experts Warn China’s use of thousands of tons of antibiotics in agriculture is a major cause for concern.

 

 

Asian Scientist Newsroom | November 24, 2015 | In the Lab

 

AsianScientist (Nov. 24, 2015) - Two medical experts from The University of Queensland are urging China to curb its use of antibiotics in animals to avoid what could be a ‘major health catastrophe’ for humans, following their research published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

 

Polymyxin antibiotic class is a “last-defence” antibiotic for patients, including in intensive care units, but its extensive use in agriculture in China was leading to resistance in humans, warned Professor David Paterson, Head of the Infection and Immunity group at UQ Center for Clinical Research.

 

“It will be very dangerous if people stop responding to this treatment. A key part of many intensive treatments relies on antibiotic success to fight life-threatening infection and keep further infections at bay. However, resistance to this antibiotic is now becoming widespread in chickens, pigs and other animals across Asia, and has now been detected in humans,” cautioned Paterson.

 

In the report, Paterson said the resistance was directly linked to agricultural use of the antibiotic in the food-chain. “When humans eat the food derived from these animals fed with antibiotics, this leads to antibiotic resistance. By the end of 2015, China is projected to use thousands of tonnes of polymyxins. Chinese leaders needed to take urgent and decisive action to curb this use.” Paterson said.

 

 

 

 

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New antibiotic resistance gene that breaches 'last line of defense' found in China

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD

Published: Thursday 19 November 2015 at 3am PST

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A new gene that makes bacteria resistant to polymyxins - the last-resort antibiotics for treating infections - is widespread in a large family of bacteria sampled from pigs and people in South China, says a new study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

 

 

The researchers first found evidence of transferable resistance to the polymyxin drug colistin in bacteria isolated from a pig on an intensive farm in China.

 

The researchers say some of the bacterial strains that have acquired the new resistance gene - called MCR-1 - also have epidemic potential.

The discovery is particularly alarming because the researchers found the new gene on plasmids - a mobile form of DNA that is easily shared and spread among different bacteria via horizontal gene transfer.

It echoes an earlier discovery in India a few years ago of the resistance gene NDM-1 that makes bacteria resistant to nearly all antibiotics, including the last-resort antibiotics carbapenems.
In their study, the researchers, led by members from South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, conclude:

"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."

Co-author Jian-Hua Liu, a professor specializing in antimicrobial resistance in animals, says the results are "extremely worrying" because the polymyxins were "the last class of antibiotics in which resistance was incapable of spreading from cell to cell."

Polymyxin resistance transferring readily among common bacteria

 

 

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