Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria change in response to the use of these medicines. A growing number of infections – such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, gonorrhoea, and salmonellosis – are becoming harder to treat as the antibiotics used to treat them become less effective. Antibiotic resistance leads to longer hospital stays,higher medical costs and increased mortality.

1. Drug-Resistant
“Superbugs”
Patel Mili N.
M.Sc. In Microbiology
Enrolment no:
201804101010020
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2. CONTENT
 Introduction
 List of superbugs
 How they became?
 Superbug infections
 Disease burden
 Technologies to treat superbugs
 Prevention and control of infections
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3. Introduction
“Superbug” is a term used to describe the newly
evolved bacterial species resistant to antibiotics. This resistance to
antibiotics by Super bugs causes economic losses by increasing the
duration of infection, treatment cost and decreasing the success of
surgical treatments due to hospital acquired infections. The drug
must cross the cell’s wall, then cross the cytoplasmic membrane to
enter the cell; there the antimicrobial binds to its target (receptor)
molecule. Then it inhibit or kill the microbe. Drug resistance is one
of nature’s never-endling process whereby organisms develop a
tolerance for new environmental conditions. Drug resistance may be
due to pre-existing factor or it may be due to some acquired factor.
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4. List of Superbugs
 Penicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus , Streptococcus
pneumoniae, Enterococcus faecium.
 Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA)
Hospital-acquired MRSA
Community acquired MRSA
 Methicillin-resistant Clostridium difficile
 Vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus aureus(VISA)
 Vancomycin resistant enterococci spp.(VRE)
 Multidrug resistant Escherichia coli, Shigella and Salmonella spp.
Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP)
 Multidrug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii
 Extremely drug resistant drug specific for tuberculosis Pseudomonas
aeruginosa, Mycobacterium tuberculosis(XDR TB)
 Multidrug resistant and Totally drug resistant Mycobacterium
tuberculosis(MDR TB), (TDR TB)
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5. How they became ?
1. The spread of resistance features occurs
different ecological groups and taxonomical
the presence of mobile genetic elements like
bacteriophage, plasmids, transposons etc..
2. Sequential Mutation of genes help in low to
levels of drug resistances.
3. Due to the mutation of genes these resistant
prevent the easy passage of drugs through the
wall, change their targets and inactivate them by
producing enzymes.
4. MDR ,XTR and TDR TB microorganisms show
resistance to antibiotics by spontaneous mutation
various genes.
1. Altering the target of the
antibiotics
2. Degrading the antibiotic
3. Altering antibiotic
4. Rapid extrusion of the antibiotic
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6. Superbug infections
• Superbug won’t cause problem until the person begins to take antibiotics for
another illness.
• They are invisible and can survive on surface for up to three days. So they also be
transmitted when patient touches something on which the pathogen resides.
• They find easy access to the bloodstream of a patient with an open wound from an
injury or surgery and patient have sepsis or septicaemia.
• Patient who are sick with another disease may have a compromised immune
system, making them too weak to fight off a superbug.
• Clostridium difficile causes server diarrhea and can damage the colon and became
difficult to treat.
• Acinetobacter baumannii can cause pneumonia, urinary tract infections and serious
blood or wound infections.
• Streptococcus pneumoniae can cause pneumonia, ear and sinus and bloodstream
infections, and meningitis.
• MDR TB usually infects the lungs, but can also infect organs such as the brain or
kidneys and emerged over years and some strain do not respond to many type of
antibiotics.
• VRSA can become deadly if they manifest as bloodstream or lung infections.
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7. Disease burden
Antimicrobial susceptibility testing results from January 2015 to
December 2015 were collected from hospital’s microbiology databases
across India.
4437
Total charged
patients
3856
Discharged
patients
Non-
survivors ,
581
0.6 1 3.3 5 0.3 1.9
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
%ofpatients
Pathogens
Clinical characteristics of patients with
culture confirmed infections
Charged patient
Discharged patient
Non survival
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8. 8
 David J. Brenner discovered that a far-
UVC band of light within a confined
wavelength range around 200 nanometers
was cytotoxic to bacteria but appeared,
unlike wide band UV, to be absorbed by,
and not to penetrate beyond, the outer
dead layers of skin, and not to damage
eyes. He is continuing his research on the
safety and potential extended medical
applications (including against airborne
viruses) of far-UVC light. He foresees the
potential use in hospitals, schools, etc.,
to help restrict the spread of microbial
and viral based disease.
Technologies to treat superbugs
 Dr. Katharina Richter develop
novel treatments to fight
antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
She developed two novel
antibacterial treatments. The first
treatment is a nasal rinse applied
after surgery destroying residual
bacteria that can cause recurring
infections, ongoing ill health and the
need for further surgery. The second
is a non-toxic wound-healing gel, also
applied after surgery, which first
starves bacteria and then feeds them
the bacterial equivalent of toxic
chocolate which the antibiotic-
resistant bacteria find irresistible.

9. Prevention and control of
infection Know your risk and take care.
 Ask questions and speak up.
 Clean your hands
 Recognize Early Symptoms of Infection.
 Use Antibiotics the Right Way.
 Remember Pets Share Germs.
 Get Vaccinated.
 Prepare Food Safely.
 Protect Yourself from Gonorrhoea.
 Stay Healthy when Travelling Abroad.
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10. References:
 Arpita P., Amit S., Siddharth R., Subha G. (2016). Superbug an Emerging Global Threat in Current Scenario: A Review.
International Journal of Research Studies in Microbiology and Biotechnology , 2, 15-19.
 Torrey, t. (2018, November). Superbugs and Hospital-Acquired Infections. Received from https://www.verywellhealth.com/mrsa-
c-diff-superbug-hospital-infections-2614867
 Abutaleb Y., McNeill R., Nelson J. D. (2016 September 7) A most unwanted list. Received from
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-uncounted-cdc/
 Sumanth Gandra, Katie K Tseng, Anita Arora, Bhaskar Bhowmik, Matthew L Robinson, Bishnu Panigrahi, Ramanan
Laxminarayan, Eili Y Klein; The mortality burden of multidrug-resistant pathogens in India: a retrospective observational study,
Clinical Infectious Diseases, , ciy955, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciy955
 Starving superbugs then poisoning them. (2018, March 6) Received from https://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news98482.html
 David Brenner, "A new weapon in the fight against superbugs" (April 2017) TED Talk at TED2017 Received from
https://www.ted.com/talks/david_brenner_a_new_weapon_in_the_fight_against_superbugs#t-39683
 Antibiotic / Antimicrobial Resistance: Protecting Yourself and Your Family
https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/protecting_yourself_family.html
 Video received from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGZZfeQTeAY
 Video received from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSWhEubyRoY
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