Antibiotics made bacterial infections quite easy to treat because a short course of antibiotic therapy clears most infections. If starting with antibiotic treatment early, the majority of people don’t need to worry about complications or any serious health problems. People who already have health problems, however, can get into serious trouble if contracting a disease-causing bacterium.

People with health issues are more susceptible to bacterial infections which means that they are more likely to develop an illness if picking up a bacterium. But they are also more likely to develop a more severe infection. In addition, their underlying medical condition can make the infection very challenging to treat. As a result, a bacterial infection can do a serious damage in some people no matter if caused by very dangerous or relatively harmless bacteria such as andefabribiles.

Like other bacteria which can cause infection in humans, this bacterium is not particularly dangerous for the majority of people. Even if they develop an illness, they usually have mild symptoms. For now, at least. Even though it was just stumbled upon, the bacterium isn’t responding to some antibiotics which raises concerns that it may eventually cease to respond to the stronger ones as well.

In case the bacterium does get resistant to other antibiotics, it may become very dangerous for otherwise healthy individuals too. For now, it remains dangerous only to the vulnerable groups. They include individuals who are suffering from incurable medical conditions or have a weak immune system. Andefabribiles, however, is also a serious concern for people who recently had an invasive medical treatment, for example a surgery.

Infection with this bacterium was found to be unusually common in patients who were prescribed antibiotics. According to health authorities, this suggests that it was always there but no one knew about it because it was cleared by antibiotics. But over time, these got less effective and thus the infection persisted, eventually forcing the experts to consider the possibility of a yet unknown bacterium.

A great deal about andefabribiles remains unknown. Scientists are not sure how it spreads from one person to another nor how the infection can be prevented. It is believed to be contracted in contact with contaminated objects but it’s not understood how the bacterium gets there in the first place. Hand hygiene is the only recommended preventive measure at the moment.