UF researchers help in fight against deadly 'super bug'

ORLANDO, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Dr. Jürgen Bulitta and his team spend almost every day fighting a bug they’ll never completely beat, but that people’s lives depend on them fighting.

It’s a super bug called Acinetobacter baumannii -- bacteria that is most commonly acquired in hospitals and care facilities, that is often deadly.

"Mortality rates are as high as 40 to 80 percent,” said Dr. Bulitta. "It has been highlighted by pretty much every international organization and U.S. organization in this field as one of the three most serious threats to human health."

So his team at the University of Florida Health Research center in Lake Nona work to find ways to keep ahead of it. They use some of the best tech in the world to combine treatments and find effective ways of beating the bug.

The problem is, it keeps adapting.

“You find something that is good for the next five years, 10 years,” said Dr. Bulitta.

Then the bug beats the treatment and his team is forced to find new tactics to beat it, but he said that’s why they have to keep fighting it: to give people a chance against the super bug.