Superbug hits U.S., could end antibiotic use in medicine

Strain of E-Coli could change medical procedures

An antibiotic-resistant superbug has reached the U.S. and doctors are worried.

Experts think its existence could bring the end of antibiotic use in medicine.

Dr. David McNamara, an infectious disease specialist at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse, says this strain of E-coli could lead to a big change in medical procedures.

“A really big change … to sort of think that there could be a bacterial infection that we don’t have treatment for,” McNamara said. “That’s really a hard thing for us to wrap our mind around.”

But McNamara says Gundersen has procedures for handling contagious diseases, which could be used if the superbug comes to this area.

This E-coli superbug was found in a Pennsylvania woman has been found to resist the drug Colistin, and the resistance might spread to other bacteria.

“If there’s a known or strongly suspected bacterial infection, what we really want to discourage health care providers and patients from using antibiotics for things that aren’t really a bacterial infection,” McNamara said.

McNamara says U.S. drug companies haven’t put large amounts of money into developing new antibiotics because they aren’t in as much demand as widely-advertised pills.