A NEW form of superbug regarded as a “substantial public health risk” has been found in Scotland for the first time.

The bacteria, discovered in a salmonella patient who returned from South East Asia, contains a genetic mutation that makes it resistant to the powerful "last-resort antibiotic" colistin.

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Referred to as the mcr-1, the gene appears to be seamlessly transferred between bacteria which could make anti-biotic treatments redundant to dangerous strains of disease such as E.coli.

The discovery has been described as a "wake up call" to the medical industry's over-reliance on using antibiotics to treat infection and illness.

It is thought the drug-resistant gene may have originated in China from animals that commonly eat feed fortified with the antibiotic colistin and subsequently spread to humans.

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Dr Michael Lockhart, consultant medical microbiologist for Health Protection Scotland, said this first Scottish case was a reminder of the need to "be careful about how we manage antibiotic use”.

He said: “When we first got wind of this form of resistance being identified towards the end of last year one of things we did was to ensure the reference laboratories that work with us were able to detect it," he said.

"This case showed the system we had in place worked.”

However, he added: “It is another example of increasing antibiotic resistance which reminds us what a big problem this is. That is why so much work is going on to try and control it.”

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Dr Lockhart said it was essential disease prevention work was carried out in tandem with colleagues in veterinary medicine.

Scotland is fighting the emergence of superbugs and the risk they pose to patients on a number of fronts and has made significant progress reducing the harm caused by MRSA.

The measures include optimising the appropriate use of antibiotics to reduce the likelihood of resistance developing, strict infection control measures to stop any bugs spreading between patients and collecting detailed information about the bugs which are found in patients from laboratories.

The World Health Organisation is among those to warn about the dangers faced by the world population if antibiotics are no longer effective against infections.

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It would mean cuts and routine operations could become fatal. Inappropriate use of medicines, including too much prescribing and patients failing to take full courses of treatment, are thought to be among the causes of growing antibiotic resistance.

The discovery of the mcr-1 gene in China was described in the Lancet by researchers at the South China Agricultural University as "extremely worrying".

They said it showed progression from extensive resistance to the antibiotic colisin to a pandrug resistance was now "inevitable".

The case of the Scottish superbug was found in a sample taken from a patient who was suffering from salmonella poisoning after travelling in South East Asia.

A report issued by Health Protection Scotland, the agency which monitors public health risks, says the individual is recovering and did not ultimately need to take antibiotics.

Professor Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University, explained that within the human gut the abnormal salmonella could easily transfer the mcr-1 gene to other bacteria boosting their resistance to "last-resort" antibiotic.

Patients in intensive care units, he said, who are already very frail could become infected with bacteria in the gut that are not usually harmful to other people.

"If you are already very sick or have very bad diabetes and you have had a leg removed - really we need all the antibiotics we can get to treat you," said Mr Pennington. "If we are losing the last line of defence mechanism against nasty infections, that is bad news, but we are not at that stage yet."

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)has concluded that the detection of this new form of resistant bacteria around the world poses a substantial public health risk.

They have recently published a rapid risk assessment of the threat it poses.

This was outlined in the Health Protection Scotland report along with the announcement of the Scottish case.