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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSuperbug known as ‘phantom menace’ on the rise in U.S.
A particularly dangerous superbug, dubbed the "phantom menace" by scientists, is on the rise in the United States, according to a report Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This superbug's strains belong to the family of bacteria known as CRE, which are difficult to treat because they are often resistant to most antibiotics. They are often deadly, too, in some instances killing up to 50 percent of patients who become infected, according to the CDC. Health officials have called CRE among the country's most urgent public health threats.
The target of Thursday's report is relatively new. Unlike more common types of CRE, it carries a plasmid, or mobile piece of DNA, with an enzyme that breaks down antibiotics. And what makes these bacteria even more dangerous is their ability to transfer that plasmid--and that antibiotic resistance--to normal bacteria that are present in our bodies.
This type of CRE has had a lower profile because it's actually less antibiotic-resistant than other more common types of CRE. As a result, it hasn't been a frequent focus of testing and has largely escaped detection by health officials, prompting some researchers to dub it "the phantom menace."
"This is a tricky drug-resistant bacteria, and it isn't easily found," CDC Director Thomas Frieden said in an interview. "What we're seeing is an assault by the microbes on the last bastion of antibiotics."
Bacteria develop antibiotic resistance in two ways.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/superbug-known-as-%E2%80%98phantom-menace%E2%80%99-on-the-rise-in-us/ar-AAfZoJC?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout
matt819
(10,749 posts)Something else to worry about.
Laffy Kat
(16,383 posts)still_one
(92,217 posts)Very dangerous, and yes a bacteria as common as E. coli can have this resistance
They really need to explore all areas including vaccines, and phages
GeorgeGist
(25,321 posts)still_one
(92,217 posts)warning shot that should not be ignored
DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)... and, no surprise, the bacteria and other microbes win.
Even in our bodies they outnumber our "human" cells by a factor of ~10. They mutate and reproduce the mutations far more quickly than the best laboratory culturing process. No approval or financing need to conduct animal or human trials. The deck is stack against big, slow moving Man.