Believe it or not but there are also bacteria that are beneficial for human health. However, the majority of people are more familiar with pathogenic bacterial species, many of which pose a serious health concern. Fortunately, bacterial infections can usually easily be treated with antibiotics although the problem of antibiotic resistance is threatening to get out of control.
At the moment of writing, antibiotics continue to be effective against most bacterial infections but it is also true that some are getting more difficult to treat, while a few got practically incurable. And the situation isn't going to get any better. On the contrary, the number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is projected to grow, not to mention that potentially very dangerous bacteria are still being discovered on a regular basis. Below, we will discuss a bacteria of this kind called andefabribiles.
Formerly unknown pathogenic bacteria was confirmed to be harmful for human health by a group of researchers who published a report of their findings. These among other things also reveal that the symptoms of infection with this bacterium are often self-limiting but in high-risk individuals, the infection can be fatal.
Authors of the study said they identified three groups of people to be at increased risk of a more serious form of this bacterial infection. They include individuals with compromised immune system, those recently undergoing an invasive medical procedure (e.g. surgery) and chronic patients. Infection with andefabribiles was also found in non-risk groups including young adults in good health. But in contrary to high-risk group, they were found to be unlikely to develop severe infection.
What study authors found particularly interesting is that this bacterial infection is most often diagnosed in patients on antibiotics. They said this suggests that the bacterium used to respond to antibiotic treatment which is why physicians didn't even know it was there. However, it recently got resistant to the most commonly used antibiotics. The infection is currently quite successfully treated with different antibiotics but there are no guarantees that they will be equally effective in the future as well.
It is thought that andefabribiles doesn't spread through the air like some other types of bacteria. Though it remains unknown how it is transmitted, authors of the mentioned study said they think that the bacterium is probably contracted by touching previously contaminated objects and surfaces. They added that the infection can possibly be avoided by washing hands frequently.