A toddler residing in Connecticut has been found with to be carrying a superbug. What is puzzling is the source could not be identified.
A superbug is a type of bacteria that is resistant to the strongest antibiotic of the last resort. The incidences of superbug attacks cause alarm across the US. Since then health researchers and medical scientists have been trying to look where these germs could be lurking, The Washington Post reported.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that a superbug has popped up into a female, 2-year-old toddler residing in Connecticut. The girl got ill in June and she was identified to be carrying an E. coli bacteria strain together with mcr-1, an antibiotic-resistant gene. So far, this makes the fourth identified case of superbug in the United States of America.
From Connecticut, the toddler travelled to Caribbean to meet her relatives and friends and stayed there for two weeks, NBC News reported. In her trip, the patient ate goat meat and chicken. On June 12, the toddler developed bloody diarrhea and fever, two days prior to getting back to Connecticut, US.
The food diet is essential because the mcr1-gene has been identified in meat of food animals such as pigs. The mcr-1 gene lets the organism resists an antibiotic named colistin. Colistin is a drug physicians administer for the treatment of patients with infections who do not respond with any other antibiotics.
In the toddler's case, though the bacteria strain in this superbug resists colistin antibiotic, luckily, that bacteria strain does not resist all types of antibiotics, according to CDC. The toddler recuperated completely.
And this superbug bacteria have not been transmitted to the other people the toddler had contact with, neither to the members of her family nor to medical practitioners and other health care providers.
While the toddler was then cleared from the presence of mcr-1 E in her body, the mysterious superbug, an antibiotic resistant gene in the strain was incidentally discovered. Health experts in the United States reckon the cases involving the superbug bacteria would increase and that they recommended a heightened surveillance for the superbug bacteria that appears to be resistant to colistin antibiotic.
Check out this video about the superbug: