CRE or Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae is already infecting a large portion of the population in the States and is causing hundreds of deaths each year. A new finding has proved that the bacteria can be more dangerous as it is rapidly spreading without leaving a trace.
Every year, about 9,300 people get affected by the superbug, out of which 600 die in the United States. And the finding says that more and more people are getting infected by CRE and there aren’t any symptoms of the infection.
In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the researchers have found a family of the CPE superbugs that can resist even the antibiotics. The research proves that there remains much about this family of bacteria to be discovered.
The researchers were able to collect and genetically sequence more than 250 CRE isolates. They were responsible for diseases in four hospitals in the U.S. over a period of 16 months. The isolates were sourced from the patients’ blood, urine samples, respiratory tract and wound. At the four hospitals, eight CRE species were found. A variety of CRE types were found in each hospital with several species along with a range of genetic backgrounds and resistance genes.
Some of the species of these bacteria were able to survive the antibiotics without them carrying the genes for suppressing the antibiotics. This hints that the bugs have created a way to avoid antibiotics which is still not known to the researchers.
Moreover, there are no symptoms seen in the human body when the superbug is transmitted from one person to another. The researchers couldn’t find a clear pattern of transmission for the CRE strains but it is spreading without any case of infection or illness.
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