We have a growing number of microbes that are infectious and resistant to commonly used antibiotics. These microbes, termed "superbugs" are referred to by the acronym, ESKAPE, where each letter in this acronym stands for the first letter in the scientific name for the superbug. Briefly, these superbugs are:
E
Enterococcus faecium which includes strains resistant to the antibiotic, and are called vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) strains.
S
Staphylococcus aureus is a common resident on human skin and does not normally make healthy humans sick but can take the opportunity to infect immune compromised patients like burn victims. In such a situation, the Methicillin-resistant S. aureus, or MRSA, can be fatal.
K
Klebsiella pneumoniae is resistant many of the commonly used antibiotics, including carbapenems, which has led to the creation of carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae (CRKP), which is difficult to treat.
A
Acinetobacter baumannii is most common in hospitals, which has allowed for the development of resistance to all known antimicrobials.
P
Pseudomonas aeruginosa grows in the lungs of patients suffering from late-stage cystic fibrosis (CF). There are also some multi-drug resistant (MDR) strains of P. aeruginosa which can make treatment particularly difficult.
E
Enterobacter can cause urinary tract (UTI) and blood infections and is resistant to multiple drug therapies.