Doctors Fear Antibiotic Resistant E. coli

Urinary tract infections affect six-to-eight million people in the U.S. every year most of them women. 

The leading cause of Urinary tract infections is a bacterium called E. coli.  Over the years E. coli has been quite easy to to treat with general antibiotics that work quite well. 

But now there's news about a resistant strain of E. coli called  E. coli ST131. 

According to the latest research, although it accounts for only about 17 percent of overall E. coli cases, it leads to a 50 percent of bacteria resistant to more than one antibiotic. 

This is a concern because if we have resistant strains of urinary tract infections and they start to spread what was once a common problem relatively easy to treat could become far more aggressive.

Reported by KYW Medical Editor Dr. Brian McDonough