The superbug in question is Acinetobacter baumannii, which the World Health Organization has classified as a “critical” threat among its “priority pathogens” – a group of bacteria families that pose the “greatest threat” to human health.
One common superbug increasingly seen outside hospitals is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). These bacteria don't respond to methicillin and related antibiotics. MRSA can cause skin infections and, in more serious cases, pneumonia or bloodstream infections.
Superbugs are forms of bacteria that are resistant to all available treatments and can cause life-threatening infections. They have the potential to spread among living things in health and agricultural settings before they make their way to humans and animals, causing "significant harm", according to the CSIRO report.
Superbugs are strains of bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi that are resistant to most of the antibiotics and other medications commonly used to treat the infections they cause. A few examples of superbugs include resistant bacteria that can cause pneumonia, urinary tract infections and skin infections.
Phage therapy, the use of bacteria-killing viruses called bacteriophages against superbugs that no longer respond to antibiotics, is currently a last-resort, experimental therapy available only to those for whom traditional treatments aren't working.
Superbugs are caused by the misuse of antibiotics. When antibiotics are overused or misused, the bacteria that have caused the disease in question are overexposed and produce mutations in an attempt to survive.
In the study, 14 percent of 399 hospital patients tested had "superbug" antibiotic-resistant bacteria on their hands or nostrils very early in their hospital stay, the research finds.
Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
Probably the most famous hospital-acquired infection or 'superbug', MRSA is so-called because of its resistance to the antibiotic methicillin (hence Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureas).
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus
This type of bacteria is resistant to many antibiotics, including methicillin. Most methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, infections contracted outside of a hospital are skin infections.
That's according to a Washington University study released late last year which estimated superbugs are responsible for as many as 162,000 deaths annually—more than twice as many deaths each year as occur from opioid and other drug overdoses.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae (extended-spectrum β-lactamases) Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) Multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Vancomycin, long considered a "drug of last resort," kills by preventing bacteria from building cell walls. It binds to wall-building protein fragments called peptides, in particular those that end with two copies of the amino acid D-alanine (D-ala).
After years of progress in the battle against antimicrobial-resistance, so-called “superbugs” have made a concerning comeback in the age of COVID, with resistant hospital-onset infections and deaths soaring at least 15% in the first year of the pandemic alone, according to a new Centers for Disease Control report.
If superbugs are allowed to spread, we may reach a point where it is too dangerous to conduct surgeries such as c-sections and transplants because of the risk of superbug infection, which would have huge implications for the health of people around the world.
Certain drug-resistant strains of gonorrhea are on its list of urgent superbugs, as is Clostridioides difficile, or C. diff, which can cause life-threatening diarrhea and colon inflammation. The CDC estimates 12,800 people die of C. diff each year.
'Superbugs' can spread in the environment, such as through human faeces or animal manure, and contaminate food plants, including fruits and vegetables. They can spread by eating contaminated food if the food is not handled or cooked properly.
Like other superbugs, drug-resistant E. coli exists largely because of overuse and misuse of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture.
Acinetobacter is a group of bacteria often found in the environment, within soils and water in particular. All types of this bacteria can cause disease in humans, although Acinetobacter baumannii is responsible for around 80% of them.
In the U.S., more than 35,000 people die each year from antimicrobial-resistant infections, which can number 2.8 million annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
How are antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections treated? If an infection shows signs of antibiotic resistance, your healthcare provider may try a different drug. The new drug may have more severe side effects, and trying a different antibiotic also raises the risk of developing resistance to that drug.