A new study published this week in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases has doctors and health experts concerned that the world is about to enter a “post-antibiotic era”, as the authors of the paper found bacteria resistant to the drug of last resort in patients and livestock.
According to BBC News, a team of Chinese researchers explained that they had identified a new mutation known as the MCR-1 gene that prevented colistin—a medication that has been effective against most Gram-negative bacilli and is used as a polypeptide antibiotic, ineffective.
One-fifth of the animals they tested, as well as 15 percent of raw meat samples and 16 patients, demonstrated resistance to the antibiotic. Furthermore, the resistance was found in a wide range of different strains and species of bacteria, including E. coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Scientists said that the findings were “alarming,” according to Reuters, and it is likely that such resistance will ultimately spread across the globe, leading to completely untreatable infections. It is believed that the resistance emerged due to the overuse of colistin in farm animals.
Could the ‘antibiotic apocalypse’ soon be upon us?
Should bacteria become completely resistant to treatment, it could plunge the world into what the BBC refers to as “the antibiotic apocalypse”, a period in which common infections could be fatal because medicine proves ineffective, and surgeries and cancer treatments requiring antibiotic use would be placed in jeopardy.
There is also evidence that colistin resistance has also spread to Malaysia and Laos, and Reuters added that doctors are calling for restrictions on the use of polymyxins—the class of antibiotic that includes colistin and which is commonly used in livestock farming. In light of the new Chinese study, however, it may be a case of too little, too late.
“All the key players are now in place to make the post-antibiotic world a reality,” University of Cardiff professor Timothy Walsh, who collaborated on the study, told BBC News. “If MCR-1 becomes global, which is a case of when not if, and the gene aligns itself with other antibiotic resistance genes, which is inevitable, then we will have very likely reached the start of the post-antibiotic era. At that point if a patient is seriously ill… there is virtually nothing you can do.”
While this isn’t the first time that colistin resistance has been observed, this case is different in that is emerged in a way that can be easily shared between bacteria, Prof Mark Wilcox of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust added. Wilcox said that the “transfer rate of this resistance gene is ridiculously high” and that his hospital is currently dealing with several cases for which they are “struggling to find an antibiotic.” It’s clear, he said, that “we’re losing the battle.”
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