New strain of E. coli fuels fears
Source: Agencies |
August 1, 2010, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A new, virulent and drug-resistant strain of E. coli bacteria is infecting people in the US and posing a significant public health threat, doctors reported on Friday.
The new strain is called ST131 and caused many of the E. coli infections resistant to antibiotics in the fluoroquinolone and cephalosporin classes, the researchers said.
"If this strain gains one additional resistance gene, it will become almost untreatable and will be a true superbug," Dr James Johnson of the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis, who led the study, said in a statement.
Writing in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, Johnson and colleagues said the ST131 strain has been reported in several countries and across the United States.
They tested samples from 127 patients with E. coli infections that resisted strong extended-spectrum cephalosporin and fluoroquinolone antibiotics in 2007. Of these, genetic tests showed 54 were from the new ST131 strain.
Escherichia coli bacteria are normally harmless and are very common.
The new strain is called ST131 and caused many of the E. coli infections resistant to antibiotics in the fluoroquinolone and cephalosporin classes, the researchers said.
"If this strain gains one additional resistance gene, it will become almost untreatable and will be a true superbug," Dr James Johnson of the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis, who led the study, said in a statement.
Writing in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, Johnson and colleagues said the ST131 strain has been reported in several countries and across the United States.
They tested samples from 127 patients with E. coli infections that resisted strong extended-spectrum cephalosporin and fluoroquinolone antibiotics in 2007. Of these, genetic tests showed 54 were from the new ST131 strain.
Escherichia coli bacteria are normally harmless and are very common.
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