What do Healthcare Providers Need to Know About the Pennsylvania Superbug Infection?

Jason C. Gallagher, PharmD, FCCP, FIDSA, BCPS, president, Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists, explains what healthcare providers need to know about this most recent case of a superbug infection in the US.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“So the most important thing for a healthcare provider to know about this case is that this resistance is here in the United States, but it may or may not be isolated, we really don’t know.

Because colistin testing is not routinely done for [Escherichia] coli, we have absolutely no idea how many isolates are resistant and how many are susceptible. It’s very likely that a very low percentage is resistant. [I'm sure] that this is not the only case in the country, it’s just the only one that we have found.”