Another Superbug on the loose

In this week’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, there is a brief correspondence, “Extensively Drug-Resistant Shigellosis in Australia among Men Who Have Sex with Men”. The authors from the University of Melbourne note that in that area of Australia an alarming increase in multi-resistant Shigella sonnei associated Shigellosis is being seen in a specific population of men having sex with men. These strains were resistant to all known oral antibiotics. The isolated S. sonnei were still sensitive to IV antibiotics but now these patients must be treated in hospital.

Trana Discovery has identified a unique tRNA that is essential to Shigella and highly modified making it selective to specific bacteria leaving the microbiota unaffected.