What are ESBLs?

Well, it's some kind of thing I guess that infects newborn babies. There was a recent attack in a UK hospital, here's the BBC with a quip:

A potentially life-threatening superbug has been found in the intensive care unit used for newborn babies at the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

Some babies have been identified as carrying the bug, called extended-spectrum beta-lactamase, or ESBL.


Fortunately, the CDC is a bit more illuminating with what this "superbug" is:

ESBLs are enzymes that mediate resistance to extended-spectrum (third generation) cephalosporins (e.g., ceftazidime, cefotaxime, and ceftriaxone) and monobactams (e.g., aztreonam) but do not affect cephamycins (e.g., cefoxitin and cefotetan) or carbapenems (e.g., meropenem or imipenem).

Which means they are weird enzymes that attach to bacteria and cause them to become resistant against many types of antibiotics.

So where do these enzymes come from?? They come from certain other unicellular organisms such as E. Coli and the bacteria themselves.

One question no one answers, when did these superbugs start producing this enzyme? It seems pretty specific to me... This reeks of deliberate genetic manipulation of enzyme production that went awry or was possibly purposefully created to cause a rise in infant mortality.

And now it is killing babies.