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 In a study published in the journal Science, the researchers said
the bug, a species of multidrug-resistant bacteria called
Mycobacterium abscessus (M. abscessus), can cause severe pneumonia
and is particularly dangerous for patients with CF and other lung
diseases.
"The bug initially seems to have entered the patient population from
the environment, but we think it has recently evolved to become
capable of jumping from patient to patient, getting more virulent as
it does so," said Andres Floto, a Cambridge University professor who
co-led the study.
Cystic fibrosis is a relatively rare genetic disorder that affects
the respiratory, digestive and reproductive systems. It causes
patients' lungs to become clogged up with thick, sticky mucus and
makes them vulnerable to respiratory infections.
In this study, researchers from Cambridge and the Wellcome Trust
Sanger Institute sequenced the genomes of more than 1,000 samples of
mycobacteria from 517 CF patients at specialist clinics in Europe,
the United States and Australia.
They found that the majority of patients had picked up transmissible
forms of M. abscessus that had spread globally.
Further analysis suggested the infection may be transmitted within
hospitals via contaminated surfaces and through the air, the
researchers said - presenting a serious challenge to infection
control practices in hospitals.
Because the superbug has already become resistant to many
antibiotics, it is also extremely difficult to treat successfully,
Floto said. Patients infected with it need 18 months or more of
treatment with a combination of powerful antibiotics, and fewer than
one in three cases is cured.
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Julian Parkhill of the Sanger Institute, who worked on this study,
said that while its findings were alarming for CF patients, they did
also provide a degree of hope.
"Now that we know the extent of the problem and are beginning to
understand how the infection spreads, we can start to respond," he
said.
The sequencing data has thrown up potential new drug targets, he
explained, and the researchers now plan to focus on seeking to
develop new medicines to beat the bug.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland, editing by Mak Heinrich)
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