British scientists have claimed that a new gene called New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1 has emerged that makes the bacteria resistant to almost all antibiotics. India has rejected the claim that it is the source of this superbug. Cases have been detected in the UK and Australia and are on the rise in the UK.
According to British scientists patients who traveled to India and Pakistan for treatments such as cosmetic surgery have come back with NDM-1 infections. Indian health ministry says it is unfair to link the bacteria to India and has described the report as “sensationalism”. It says that the bug is a worldwide phenomenon and the British medical journal The Lancet is unfairly holding India responsible by painting a frightening picture which is not supported by scientific data.
According to experts NDM-1 can exist inside bacteria like E coli and make them resistant to most antibiotics. The Lancet says about 50 cases have been identified in the UK so far, but scientists fear it could spread all over the world.
According to Infectious diseases physician Professor Peter Collignon from the Australian National University this bug was seen in Australia just a couple of months ago. “We've had a case in Canberra where somebody's come back from having a medical procedure done in India that has left them with some medical problems, but in addition carrying bugs that are untreatable…They're very much like those germs that you've spoken about in The Lancet, but these ones are actually even worse in that they are truly untreatable if the person should develop a serious infection with it. A study we've done here shows that if people from Canberra go traveling, particularly to Asia, over half of them pick up very resistant bacteria E coli bugs, presumably mainly from food, that then would be very difficult to treat if they got an infection from it.”
He said it was particularly important to regulate apple imports. “In New Zealand and also in parts of Asia, apples are sprayed with antibiotics to stop fire-blight…This can last on the skin or in the apple for up to six months and, if ingested, creates resistant bacteria…Potentially we could see a large number of new superbugs if these apples are allowed to be imported,” he said.
Last month Professor Collignon published a letter in the Medical Journal of Australia about a Canberra man in his mid 50s who picked up the drug-resistant bugs after undergoing plastic surgery in India. It took the man two months to rid himself of the bacteria.
President of the Australian Society for Infectious Diseases Thomas Gottlieb also said antibiotic resistance was “one of the foremost issues that would affect healthcare worldwide, including Australia, in the coming decades”.
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