New test can detect superbugs in 30 minutes

Los Angeles: Scientists have developed a new test that identifies antibiotic-resistant bacteria in as little as half an hour, an advance that could bolster the fight against superbugs.

Antibiotics are losing their effectiveness due to overuse and misuse. Many species of bacteria have evolved resistance to commonly used antibiotics and multidrug-resistant bacteria or superbugs have emerged, plaguing hospitals and nursing homes.

The test developed at California Institute of Technology in the US focused on one of the most common types of infections in humans, urinary tract infections (UTIs), which 50 per cent of women contract during their lifetimes.

When doctors treat patients with bacterial infections, they often skip over first-line antibiotics like methicillin or amoxicillin - drugs that bacteria are more likely to be resistant to - and go straight for stronger second-line antibiotics, like ciprofloxacin.

This practice increases the chance that the treatment will be effective, but it is not ideal. That is because the increased use of second-line antibiotics makes it more likely that bacteria also will become resistant to these stronger drugs.

"Right now, we're overprescribing, so we're seeing resistance much sooner than we have to for a lot of the antibiotics that we would otherwise want to preserve for more serious situations," said Nathan Schoepp, graduate student at Caltech.

The problem is that there has not been a quick and easy way for a doctor to know if their patient's infection is resistant to particular antibiotics. To find out, the doctor would have to sent a sample to a testing lab, and wait two to three days for an answer.