--- title: New Mutation Makes Bacteria Resistant to Drugs description: A mutation discovered in people and livestock in China makes bacteria resistant to last-resort drugs canonical: https://time.com/4120064/mutation-bacteria-drug-resistant/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-19T13:56:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:06:18.223Z article:section: Health og:title: New Mutation Makes Bacteria Resistant to Drugs og:description: Will we soon have a post-antibiotic world? og:url: https://time.com/4120064/mutation-bacteria-drug-resistant/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24fc3a1e7983062d/69886f312dce012ab29e64b6/e-coli-outbreak.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5240 og:image:height: 2948 og:image:alt: E Coli og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New Mutation Makes Bacteria Resistant to Drugs twitter:description: Will we soon have a post-antibiotic world? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24fc3a1e7983062d/69886f312dce012ab29e64b6/e-coli-outbreak.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Newly Discovered Bacteria Can Resist All Antibiotics > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: New Antibiotic Kills TB, MRSA Without Building Resistance [Watch (HLS stream): New Antibiotic Kills TB, MRSA Without Building Resistance](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/hkSBloPw.m3u8) (1:56)  _Published 2015-01-08. Researchers published findings on teixobactin on Wednesday. The compound might hail a new line of antibiotics to which bacteria have trouble adapting._  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Nov 19, 2015 1:56 PM UTC  E.coli bacteria E.coli bacteriaIan Cuming—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Nov 19, 2015 1:56 PM UTC A mutation discovered in people and livestock in China makes bacteria resistant to last-resort drugs. A [new report](http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099%2815%2900424-7/abstract) found bacteria resistant to colistin, a drug used when all other treatments have failed, in 16 patients, 15% of raw meat samples and a fifth of the animals tested. The mutation that made the bacteria resistant to the drug is called the MCR-1 gene, and spread resistance between various bacteria including E. coli. Prof Timothy Walsh of the University of Cardiff, who worked on the study [told BBC](http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34857015), “All the key players are now in place to make the post-antibiotic world a reality. If MCR-1 becomes global, which is a case of when not if, and the gene aligns itself with other antibiotic resistance genes, which is inevitable, then we will have very likely reached the start of the post-antibiotic era. At that point if a patient is seriously ill, say with E. coli, then there is virtually nothing you can do.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4120064/mutation-bacteria-drug-resistant/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4120064/mutation-bacteria-drug-resistant/"},"headline":"Newly Discovered Bacteria Can Resist All Antibiotics","datePublished":"2015-11-19T13:56:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:06:18.223Z","description":"A mutation discovered in people and livestock in China makes bacteria resistant to last-resort drugs","url":"https://time.com/4120064/mutation-bacteria-drug-resistant/","keywords":["medicine","Drugs","Bacteria"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24fc3a1e7983062d/69886f312dce012ab29e64b6/e-coli-outbreak.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24fc3a1e7983062d/69886f312dce012ab29e64b6/e-coli-outbreak.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"E Coli","caption":"E Coli","creditText":"Ian Cuming—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/medicine/","name":"medicine"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4120064/mutation-bacteria-drug-resistant/","name":"Newly Discovered Bacteria Can Resist All Antibiotics"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"New Antibiotic Kills TB, MRSA Without Building Resistance","description":"Researchers published findings on teixobactin on Wednesday. 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