Superbug in U.S.: Super True, Super Scary

If you haven’t gotten the wake-up call about the dangers of using antibiotics, don’t hit snooze on this one: Doctors have found an antibiotic-resistant superbug in a Pennsylvania woman.

Each year in the U.S., at least two million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.

Last month, physicians found an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria in a 49-year-old woman who had a urinary tract infection (UTI). A study detailing the situation was published Thursday in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology.

Her bacterium was resistant to Colistin, a last-chance antibiotic for treating superbugs in a family of bacteria known as CRE.

“It basically shows us that the end of the road isn’t very far away for antibiotics — that we may be in a situation where we have patients in our intensive care units, or patients getting urinary-tract infections for which we do not have antibiotics,” Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Wall Street Journal.

The CDC and the Pennsylvania Department of Health are investigating. Dr. Alex Kallen, a CDC medical officer, has said the woman was treated and released.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that it found one strain of Colistin-resistant E. coli in a single sample of a pig intestine, a Department of Health and Human Services statement reports. The USDA is trying to determine the origin of the pig and any possible contamination.

Each year in the United States, at least two million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics; at least 23,000 people die each year as a direct result of these infections.

Why Superbugs?
Antibiotic resistance has been created by too many antibiotics in the food supply and overuse in our health care system, according to Dr. Sarath Malepati, a general surgeon and medical director of the PPC Group in Los Angeles, California.

He said the problem is due to patients and doctors: Patients want a quick fix and sometimes insist on antibiotics, while doctors are trying to appease and treat patients.

“Doctors are writing too many prescriptions and patients are pressuring their doctors,” he explained. “Much of the patient pressure has been built up from years of direct-to-consumer marketing.”

Americans think there will always be a new antibiotic to treat new infections whenever they need it, but that is no longer the case.

“After seeing several patients die unnecessarily from overzealous antibiotic use, I started looking into the numbers more,” Malepati added.

He is the founder of EZC Pak, an immunity product for doctors and patients to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions for upper respiratory infections, which are the most common infection in humans.

Preventing Infection
“It’s very difficult to turn back the clock once these resistant organisms are out there,” said Dr. Dean Blumberg, associate professor and chief of pediatric infectious disease at UC David Children’s Hospital in Sacramento, California.

“It’s very difficult to eradicate them,” he told LifeZette.

Blumberg, who works with the California Medical Association Foundation’s AWARE program to promote awareness about safely using antibiotics, said superbugs will be the new normal. All we can do is limit the spread of superbugs and try to slow them down in their development.

The type of superbug found in the patient in the U.S. is typically in the small intestine. It can cause urinary tract infections — that’s the mildest infection it causes, he noted — and a slew of other infections such as pneumonia and blood poisoning.

When people take too many antibiotics, they can build up a resistance to the bacteria. Upon transmission, their bodies then cannot fight the infection. And if the patient is given a last-chance antibiotic that then doesn’t work — there’s nothing more that can be done.

“It could affect anybody,” he added.

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The medical community has become complacent about antibiotics, said Blumberg.

“The antibiotic pipeline has really slowed down due to a variety of reasons,” he said, adding that little is being invested in new treatments.

“The problem is that even on aggressive fast tracks with strong financial support, these can take years to develop and test prior to wide availability,” Malepati told LifeZette.

Americans think there will always be a new antibiotic to treat new infections whenever they need it, but that is no longer the case.

“We can’t rely on that to bail us out,” he said. Washing hands and using antibiotics responsibly is a must to prevent the spread of superbugs. A superbug has to be transmitted into the body in order for people to be infected.

Undoubtedly and unfortunately, the number of people who will contract and die from superbug infections will continue to grow over the next 30 years, Malepati said.

“Leaders are not talking about it, but the reality is that poor national and global antibiotic conservation and stewardship policy and aggressive direct-to-consumer marketing of antibiotics have fueled what is now becoming a developing global crisis,” he added.

In acute care hospitals, 1 in 7 catheter- and surgery-related health care-associated infections can be caused by six antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including:

1.) Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE)
2.) Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
3.) ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae (extended-spectrum β-lactamases)
4.) Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE)
5.) Multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa
6.) Multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter

That number increases to 1 in 4 infections in long-term acute care hospitals, which treat patients who are generally very sick and stay, on average, more than 25 days.