The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is collaborating in a coordinated public health
response to the Department of Defense (DoD) announcement on May 26 of the first mcr-1 gene found in
bacteria from a human in the United States (http://mcr-1 Gene in E. coli Bacteria). Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria carrying the mcr-1 gene were found in a urine sample from a person in Pennsylvania with no recent travel outside of the United States who presented to a clinic with a urinary tract infection. The mcr-1 gene makes bacteria resistant to the antibiotic colistin, which is used as a last-resort drug to treat patients with infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria, including carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). The mcr-1 gene exists on a plasmid, a small piece of DNA that is capable of moving from one bacterium to another, potentially spreading antibiotic resistance to other bacterial species. CDC is issuing this HAN notice as a reminder to U.S. healthcare facilities about
recommendations to prevent antibiotic resistant infections and alert them to additional recommendations
for detecting and reporting bacteria with the mcr-1 gene.