Emergence of plasmid-mediated colistin resistance (MCR-1) among Escherichia coli isolated from South African patients

• Published in: South African medical journal Vol. 106; no. 5; p. 35
• Main Authors: Coetzee, Jennifer, Corcoran, Craig, Prentice, Elizabeth, Moodley, Mischka, Mendelson, Marc, Poirel, Laurent, Nordmann, Patrice, Brink, Adrian John
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: South Africa Health & Medical Publishing Group 01.05.2016
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology; Antibacterial agents; Bacterial pneumonia; Care and treatment; Colistin - pharmacology; Drug resistance in microorganisms; Drug Resistance, Bacterial; Escherichia coli - drug effects; Escherichia coli - genetics; Escherichia coli Proteins - analysis; Female; Humans; Male; Meat - microbiology; Middle Aged; Plasmids; Pneumonia; Public Health; South Africa; South Africa
• ISSN: 0256-9574
• DOI: 10.7196/SAMJ.2016.v106i5.10710

The polymyxin antibiotic colistin is an antibiotic of last resort for the treatment of extensively drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria, including carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae. The State of the World's Antibiotics report in 2015 highlighted South Africa (SA)'s increasing incidence of these 'superbugs' (3.2% of Klebsiella pneumoniae reported from SA were carbapenemase producers), and in doing so, underscored SA's increasing reliance on colistin as a last line of defence. Colistin resistance effectively renders such increasingly common infections untreatable.