Dreaded 'Nightmare Bacteria' Resistant to All Antibiotics Is Finally Here

A so-called superbug immune to all antibiotics was discovered for the first time in a person in the U.S., reports a study published Thursday in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

The discovery “heralds the emergence of a truly pan-drug resistant bacteria,” the study’s authors warned.

“I’ve cared for patients for whom there are no drugs left. It is a feeling of such horror and helplessness.”
—Thomas Frieden, CDC

The strain of E. coli discovered in a 49-year-old woman in Pennsylvania was found to be resistant to colistin, “the antibiotic of last resort for particularly dangerous types of superbugs, including a family of bacteria known as CRE,” reports the Washington Post.

Colistin “was an old antibiotic, but it was the only one left for what I call nightmare bacteria,” said Thomas Frieden, chief of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to Al Jazeera.

“It’s the first time this colistin-resistant strain has been found in a person in the United States,” the Post notes. “In November, public health officials worldwide reacted with alarm when Chinese and British researchers reported finding the colistin-resistant strain in pigs, raw pork meat and in a small number of people in China.”

The dreaded superbug was later discovered in individual cases Europe and Canada, as well as in a single sample from a pig intestine in the U.S., according to a Department of Defense (DoD) blog post about the findings.

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The woman had gone to an outpatient military clinic complaining of symptoms of a urinary tract infection on April 26, 2016, and samples of the bacteria were sent to Walter Reed Medical Center for further testing.

An additional 20 patients at the clinic were tested for the superbug but came up negative, and the woman reported no travel in the past five months. The study authors report that it remains unclear exactly what the superbug’s prevalence is in the local population.

“A coordinated public health response is underway to try to prevent its spread,” writes the DoD.