NEW YORK (AP) – A New York City patient was infected with bacteria that had a special type of resistance to antibiotics last year, the earliest known case in the U.S. of bacteria that could lead to a superbug impervious to medications.
The bacteria were found in a patient who was treated in May of 2015 and reported in a study published Monday. They were discovered by an Iowa company that’s been testing thousands of bacteria collected from patients from around the world over the last two years.
The company, JMI Laboratories, found hundreds globally that were resistant to colistin, an old, powerful antibiotic that is now seen as a drug of last resort. Health officials worry that these bacteria will spread their resistance to last-resort antibiotics to other bacteria that are already resistant to front-line antibiotics, creating germs that can’t be killed by any known drugs.
A similar infection was reported in a Pennsylvania woman earlier this year and initially reported as the first known U.S. case. But the New York case happened almost a year before, and scientists now believe these bacteria were likely in people in the U.S. even earlier.
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