Another patient with ultra resistant bacteria is identified

                     

A second patient was infected in the United States with a superbug that is highly resistant to antibiotics used as a last resort, scientists said on Monday.

Virologists found the rare MRC-1 gene, which causes the resistance in a variety of E. coli bacteria in a patient in New York, according to a publication in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

"We are very close to see the emergence of enterobacteria that will be impossible to treat with antibiotics," said the scientist Lance Price, George Washington University.

The first case of infection with E. coli carrying the MRC-1 gene in the United States occurred in May, in a patient 49 years old, hospitalized in Pennsylvania with a persistent urinary tract infection. She has recovered.

The MRC-1 gene is especially feared because it renders bacteria resistant to colistin a 1959 antibiotic used as a last resort in cases of polirresistência.

MCR-1, located on a small fragment of microbial DNA, has the ability to move from one bacterium to another by various species, potentially spreading the resistance to all antibiotics, the authorities see a catastrophic stage.

Scientists have monitored the movements of this gene in the world since it was discovered in humans, birds and pigs in China in 2015.

Last month, the Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the creation of a network of laboratories dedicated to the treatment of resistant superbugs to antibiotics in the United States, which should start operating in the northern autumn.