Chinese researchers have found a gene that makes bacteria resistant to the last line of antibacterial defense, including polymyxins, which are the final antibiotic that doctors rely on if all others fail - potentially leading to a huge and unstoppable epidemic.

There is “extremely worrying” evidence that the gene that can allow can be transferred to bacteria, leading to global epidemics.

Lead researcher Professor Jian-Hua Liu, from the South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou, said: "These are extremely worrying results. The polymyxins (colistin and polymyxin B) were the last class of antibiotics in which resistance was incapable of spreading from cell to cell.

Professor Nigel Brown, president of the Microbiology Society, said: "This discovery that resistance to colistin can be transferred between bacteria is alarming.

bbabo.Net