Antibiotic 'last line of defence' breached

[Greg Bernhardt]

Bacterial antibiotic resistance gene found in China likely to spread worldwide, researchers say
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/antibiotic-resistance-colistin-1.3325942

Bacteria resistant to an antibiotic of last resort have been found in pigs, meat and a small number of hospital patients in China, setting off alarm bells for doctors and researchers.

Scientists discovered bacteria with a gene that makes them resistant to an old antibiotic called colistin.

"What they discovered is that by mouth it doesn't work, it doesn't get absorbed. But you could put it through your veins and it's very powerful because we haven't used that antibiotic for a very long time," Dr. Peter Lin, a family physician and medical commentator on CBC News Network, said Thursday.

 

[rootone]

I seems odd that bacteria would develop a gene which confers resistance to an antibiotic which hasn't been used for a very long time.

 

[Ygggdrasil]

I seems odd that bacteria would develop a gene which confers resistance to an antibiotic which hasn't been used for a very long time.

Many antibiotics (including colstin) are naturally produced by microorganisms to combat other bacteria, and some bacteria in the environment have evolved resistance to these antibiotics. The main problem occurs when these resistance genes get transferred to from the soil bacteria in which they typically occur into human pathogens.

The bigger question is why we were using antibiotics of last defense in farm animals, which is much more likely to breed resistance.