London: A woman from the USA has died of infection from a strain of Klebsiella pneumonia that was resistant to all 26 available antibiotics in the United States, as reported by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The woman returned to the state of Nevada in August with an infection in her hip, following an extended period in India. It is believed she picked up the multi-resistant strain through a wound infecting her bone and hip, whilst in India where she was previously hospitalised for a broken leg. Typically found in the gut, K. pneumoniae does not usually cause harm, but in this case the bone infection caused severe inflammation, which ultimately caused the woman to die from septic shock.
Doctors found that none of the 26 antibiotics available in the US were able to treat the infection, including carbapenems and colistin, often referred to as the ‘drugs of last resort.’