Extremely Resistant Superbug Is Spreading Internationally

A new superbug that makes an enzyme called NDM-1 which probably travelled back to the UK in patients who went over to India and Pakistan for surgical treatments has entered UK hospitals, experts say. This superbug is resistant to virtually all antibiotics, even the most powerful ones. So far, only 50 cases have been reported in Great Britain. However, there is a significant risk of it spreading worldwide.

NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1) is a new gene that enables a bacterium to become highly resistant to nearly all antibiotics; it is spread in Enterobacteriaceae taken from patients in India and Pakistan. It has also been found in UK patients who travelled to India for elective surgery.

You can read about this in an Article published Online First and in the September edition of The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The authors of the report say that the time has come for extremely close international monitoring and surveillance, as antibiotics may become redundant with the rapid emergence of these multi-drug resistant NDM-1 producing bacteria and their potential worldwide spread.

Timothy Walsh, Cardiff University, Wales and an international team first detected the NDM-1 gene in Klebsiella pneumonia and Escherichia coli bacteria taken from a Swedish patient admitted to hospital in India.

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