Defense Department researchers have diagnosed a woman with a superbug is resistant to all antibiotics, even a 50-year-old drug that has served as the antibiotic of last resort, which is used when everything else fails.
The 49-year-old woman was treated at a Pennsylvania clinic for a urinary tract infection, a common infection.
Health officials have warned for years of the growing danger of antibiotic resistance, which occurs when bacteria evolve in ways that prevent them from being killed by medications. The problem has been fueled by overuse of antibiotics, which are used not only in medicine but also food production.
"We risk being in a post-antibiotic world," said
Antibiotics revolutionized medicine in the 20th century, making surgeries safer. If infections can't be treated by antibiotics, people could die from relatively common infections.
