Colistin resistance – a mini survey in the EU

Nobody seemed too worried about colistin resistance, as it was mainly used in animal medicine and there were basically few resistance issues. We were focussing on cephalosporin and fluoroquinolone resistance. Now that it has started to be used in human medicine as a ‘last resort’ drug, after the carbapenems have failed, it is coming under the microscope. In an earlier weblog we highlighted the discovery of a new resistance gene associated with colistin, mcr-1, in pigs and chickens in China