WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A new, virulent and drug-resistant strain of E. coli bacteria is infecting people in the United States and posing a significant public health threat, doctors reported yesterday.
The new strain is called ST131 and caused many of the E. coli infections resistant to antibiotics in the fluoroquinolone and cephalosporin classes, the researchers said.
“If this strain gains one additional resistance gene, it will become almost untreatable and will be a true superbug, which is a very concerning scenario,” Dr. James Johnson of the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis, who led the study, said in a statement. Writing in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, Johnson and colleagues said the ST131 strain has been reported in several countries and across the United States.
