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Physicians in the U.S. have given an account that a drug-resistant microbe has conclusively materialized in a sample of urine from a Pennsylvania woman during a clinic test. The E. coli bacteria strain found in her as mentioned by health officials from the Defense Department are partly  constructed by a gene called mcr-1 which transfigures the E. coli into a bacteria impervious to colistin. Colistin is the pharmaceutical drug of choice after all other drug preferences have become futile to produce an adequate response in a patient, according to The Washington Post. 

The E. coli bacteria strain found in her as mentioned by health officials from the Defense Department are partly constructed by a gene called mcr-1 which transfigures the E. coli into a bacteria impervious to colistin. Colistin is the pharmaceutical drug of choice after all other drug preferences have become futile to produce an adequate response in a patient.

Antimicrobial resistance is the ability of microbes, such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, or fungi, to grow in the presence of a chemical (drug) that would normally kill it or limit its growth.

The finding was published in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, an official magazine for the American Society for Microbiology. It was mentioned in the study that the unearthing of the superbug "heralds the emergence of a truly pan-drug resistant bacteria."

Despite the discovery of the drug-resistant microbe, health officials have let it known that the Pennsylvania case should not spark off fear in the population as the woman's circumstance is curable with some other antibiotics.

What heightened the concern from the health officials is that existence of the plasmid-mediated colistin resistance, or MCR-1 in the microbe may perhaps find its way to other forms of bacteria therefore unifying to form another superbug that can withstand all recognized antibiotics.

According to NBC News, the Health and Human Services Department mentioned that scientists had also established the mcr-1 mutation from a section of a pig.

The Health and Human Services Department released a statement declaring, "Out of 949 animal samples screened so far, one strain of colistin-resistant E. coli was found in a pig intestinal sample. The DNA sequence of this isolate revealed that the strain contained the mcr-1 gene on a plasmid. The scientists also determined that the mcr-1 carrying colistin-resistant E. coli is resistant to other antibiotics including ampicillin, streptomycin, sulfisoxazole, and tetracycline."