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Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Untreatable Superbug Could Spread Worldwide: Scientists
Sunday, August 15, 2010
This Drug-Resistant Superbug Really Scares Me!
. . . June
Superbug scare raises hackles in India
By Sunrita Sen Aug 13, 2010, 10:50 GMT
New Delhi - A British article claiming a drug-resistant superbug came from India was 'biased' and could be aimed against the country's booming medical tourism industry, Indian medical professionals and scientists said Friday.
The study in the British medical journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases said a new antibiotic-resistant enzyme had emerged in India, Pakistan and Britain.
The enzyme, named New Delhi metallo-beta lactamase (NDM-1), can lead to fatal multiple organ failure.
The report, based on laboratory studies in the three countries, concluded that the superbug may have originated in India and 'will likely spread worldwide.'
It said the enzyme could impregnate widespread bacteria such as escherichia coli and was resistant to common antibiotics.
Britain's Health Protection Agency said it had identified bacteria with the offending enzyme in at least 50 patients. 'Most, not all, had previously travelled to the Indian subcontinent, and many had received hospital treatment there,' the agency said in a statement.
The Indian government in a release Thursday said the conclusions of the report were 'loaded with inference' and presented a 'frightening picture which is not supported by scientific data.'
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It's a little frightening to think that we could be importing superbugs from other countries, isn't it? Would you go to another country for surgery? leave a comment
. . . June
Superbug From India Due To Medical Tourism?
Just what we needed. Another Superbug! The problem is that we run for antibiotics with any infection we have from the common cold to a sore big toe. If the doctor isn't being vigilant and gives us an un-needed antibiotic, then that bug can become resistant. Soon we may not have any antibiotics that will work if we need them. This outbreak may be caused by the use of cheap medical procedures in other countries (medical tourism). More info on that new superbug in the article below.
. . . June
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Scientists find new superbug spreading from India
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - A new superbug from India could spread around the world -- in part because of medical tourism -- and scientists say there are almost no drugs to treat it.
Researchers said on Wednesday they had found a new gene called New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1, in patients in South Asia and in Britain.
U.S. health officials said on Wednesday there had been three cases so far in the United States -- all from patients who received recent medical care in India, a country where people often travel in search of affordable healthcare.
NDM-1 makes bacteria highly resistant to almost all antibiotics, including the most powerful class called carbapenems. Experts say there are no new drugs on the horizon to tackle it.
"It's a specific mechanism. A gene that confers a type of resistance (to antibiotics)," Dr. Alexander Kallen of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said in a telephone interview.
With more people traveling to find less costly medical treatments, particularly for procedures such as cosmetic surgery, Timothy Walsh, who led the study, said he feared the new superbug could soon spread across the globe.
"At a global level, this is a real concern," Walsh, from Britain's Cardiff University, said in telephone interview.
"Because of medical tourism and international travel in general, resistance to these types of bacteria has the potential to spread around the world very, very quickly. And there is nothing in the (drug development) pipeline to tackle it."
Almost as soon as the first antibiotic penicillin was introduced in the 1940s, bacteria began to develop resistance to its effects, prompting researchers to develop many new generations of antibiotics.
But their overuse and misuse have helped fuel the rise of drug-resistant "superbug" infections like methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus, or MRSA.
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Do you rely on antibiotics for every minor infection you get - or is your doctor smart about prescribing them, Leave a comment below.
. . . June
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