A multi-drug resistant infection that threatens people with cystic fibrosis is now found globally, researchers warned last night.
The infection, mycobacterium abscessus, can cause severe pneumonia and has been known from patient to patient.
According to the latest study, by researchers in Cambridge, UK, it can also be transmitted through contaminated surfaces and through the air.
The researchers say that conventional cleaning measures are unlikely to be adequate to eliminate the pathogen.
And they warn that the organism has evolved to become more virulent.
Their findings, reported in Science, come from an analysis of samples from 517 infected patients treated in specialist centres in Europe, the USA and Australia.
The researchers say they still do not know how the infection has managed to spread globally.
Researcher Professor Andres Floto, from Cambridge University, said: "This mycobacterium can cause very serious infections that are extremely challenging to treat, requiring combination treatment with multiple antibiotics for 18 months or longer.
"The bug initially seems to have entered the patient population from the environment, but we think it has recently evolved to become capable of jumping from patient to patient, getting more virulent as it does so."
Fellow researcher Professor Julian Parkhill, of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, said the findings would lead to changes in infection control policies.
Dr Janet Allen, of the CF Trust, said: "This work demonstrates the global threat of this infection, the risks of cross-infection within and between CF centres, and the need for improved surveillance."
Bryant, JM et al. Emergence and spread of a human transmissible multidrug-resistant nontuberculous mycobacterium. Science 11 November 2016
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