Deadly bacteria that is resistant to the ‘last resort’ of antibiotics, colistin, has been found in the UK, according to the BBC
Last month researchers in China found the colistin-resistant bacteria in E coli samples from livestock and humans.
Doctors in the UK thought they had three years before colistin-resistance would spread from China to the UK but Public Health England and the Animal and Plant Health Agency have already begun testing for it according to the BBC.
Public Health England has gone through the 24,000 bacterial samples it keeps on record from cases between 2012 and 2015, reported the BBC and colistin-resistance was discovered in 15 of them, including samples of Salmonella and E. Coli.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency has discovered colistin-resistant bacteria on three pig farms which the BBC said raises the prospect of untreatable infections.
MCR–1 is the gene strain that has enabled bacteria such as E coli to become resistant to the antibiotic ‘of last resort’ colistin.
Timothy Walsh, a researcher from the University of Cardiff, who worked on a study published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases about the results in China, gave an interview with the BBC back in November.
Walsh warned: "If MRC-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.
“All the key players are now in place to make the post-antibiotic world a reality. At that point if a patient is seriously ill, say with E coli, then there is virtually nothing you can do."
According to the BBC the concern is that the colistin-resistant MCR-1 gene will now find its way into other superbugs to create infections that doctors cannot treat.
Alan Johnson, head of the department of healthcare associated infection and microbial resistance, Public Health England, said to the BBC: "Our assessment is that the public health risk posed by this gene is currently considered very low, but is subject to ongoing review as more information becomes available.
"We will monitor this closely, and will provide any further public advice as needed."
The Chinese resistant cases were down to overuse of antibiotics in agriculture the BBC reported.