Researchers have identified a bacterial antibiotic resistance gene in China that confers resistance to colistin, an antibiotic considered a last line of defense against severe infections. This resistance has been detected in pigs, meat, and a limited number of hospital patients, raising significant concerns among medical professionals. The discovery highlights the alarming potential for these resistance genes to spread globally, particularly due to the use of colistin in livestock, which may accelerate the development of antibiotic-resistant pathogens.
PREREQUISITESHealthcare professionals, microbiologists, public health officials, and policymakers focused on combating antibiotic resistance and improving antibiotic stewardship in both human medicine and agriculture.
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.
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.rootone said: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.