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New superbug from India: Should you be worried?
Sun, Aug 15, 2010
AFP
Plastic surgery patients have carried a new class of superbugs resistant to almost all antibiotics from South Asia to Britain and they could spread worldwide.
This so-called NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo-lactamase-1) gene was first identified last year by Cardiff University's Timothy Walsh in two types of bacteria - Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli - in a Swedish patient admitted to hospital in India.
The new type of superbugs has infected three Australians who travelled to India, reinforcing fears it could spread worldwide after hitting dozens of people from Britain.
At least one fatality from the new superbug has been reported.
The victim, a Belgian man, was infected by the bacteria while being treated in a hospital in Pakistan, said Dr Denis Pierard, a microbiologist from AZ VUB hospital in Brussels where the man had been treated.
"He was involved in a car accident during a trip to Pakistan. He was hospitalised with a major leg injury and then repatriated to Belgium, but he was already infected," the doctor.
The Belgian man died despite being administered colistin, a powerful antibiotic, the doctor said.
What alarms many doctors is that the new NDM-1 bacteria are resistant even to carbapenems, a group of antibiotics often reserved as a last resort for emergency treatment for multi-drug resistant bugs.
This means that there is potentially no effective treatment for those who are stricken by this bacteria.
Sun, Aug 15, 2010
AFP
Plastic surgery patients have carried a new class of superbugs resistant to almost all antibiotics from South Asia to Britain and they could spread worldwide.
This so-called NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo-lactamase-1) gene was first identified last year by Cardiff University's Timothy Walsh in two types of bacteria - Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli - in a Swedish patient admitted to hospital in India.
The new type of superbugs has infected three Australians who travelled to India, reinforcing fears it could spread worldwide after hitting dozens of people from Britain.
At least one fatality from the new superbug has been reported.
The victim, a Belgian man, was infected by the bacteria while being treated in a hospital in Pakistan, said Dr Denis Pierard, a microbiologist from AZ VUB hospital in Brussels where the man had been treated.
"He was involved in a car accident during a trip to Pakistan. He was hospitalised with a major leg injury and then repatriated to Belgium, but he was already infected," the doctor.
The Belgian man died despite being administered colistin, a powerful antibiotic, the doctor said.
What alarms many doctors is that the new NDM-1 bacteria are resistant even to carbapenems, a group of antibiotics often reserved as a last resort for emergency treatment for multi-drug resistant bugs.
This means that there is potentially no effective treatment for those who are stricken by this bacteria.
