Woman diagnosed with 'nightmare bacteria' in US

'It is the end of the road unless we act urgently.'

A 49-year-old Pennsylvanian woman who has not stepped foot outside the United States within the past several months was recently diagnosed with the first case of its kind in the US - a drug-resistant form of E. coli.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The CDC and Pennsylvania Department of Health were contacted as soon as her condition was discovered and she was treated then released.

According to NBC News, the bacteria has been seen in Europe and China before and was resistant to most antibiotics, particularly the last-ditch drug Colistin.

Luckily for the woman, the mutant strain was not resistant to other drugs, which successfully eradicated the bacteria from her bloodstream.

The gene responsible for the superbug, mcr-1, is spread from bacteria to bacteria, leaving scientists concerned about the potential spread throughout the United States.

Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, explained, "It is the end of the road for antibiotics unless we act urgently."

Because the woman hadn't traveled outside the U.S., scientists believe there was a chance mcr-1 has been present in the United States, just waiting to strike.

According to CNN, the U.S. Department of Agriculture also discovered a strain of Colistin-resistant E. coli within a single sample of pig intestine, leading the USDA on a pig-hunt to determine which farm produced the unhealthy animal.

The USDA also plans to determine whether any other animals test positive as well.

According to the CDC, at least 2,000,000 people get infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria and at least 23,000 die as a result.

Frieden explained: "The medicine cabinet is empty for some patients. It is the end of the road unless we act urgently."

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