mcr-1

BRAIN BOMB: Superbug Bacteria Resistant to All Antibiotics Found in the UK

Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams | News outlets reported in December that UK government scientists have found a gene, known as mcr-1, that gives bacteria resistance to colistin, often used by doctors when other antibiotics fail.  Such resistance was first discovered last month in China and in the past few weeks, the resistance gene has also been found in Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and in several Asian and African countries.

UK scientists found the latest antibiotic-resistant gene in E. coli from two pig farms, in samples from a pig and two separate patients. Photo credit: NIAID / Flickr

The rise of the so-called post-antibiotic era is widely linked to over- and misuse of antibiotics in industrial agriculture.

The Alliance to Save our Antibiotics echoed that call, with the group’s scientific adviser Cóilín Nunan demanding the UK government “respond urgently” to the crisis.

“The routine preventative use in farming of colistin and all antibiotics important in human medicine, needs to be banned immediately,” Nunan declared.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., superbugs kill at least 23,000 Americans every year “and the problem is only getting worse,” wrote Anya Vanecek, public health digital campaigner for U.S. PIRG, in a blog post on Monday.