A new superbug that a British medical journal called attention to last month has emerged in the United States Individuals infected with the superbug known as NDM-1 turned up in doctor’s offices in Massachusetts, California and Illinois. Numerous assume the bug originated from India while all three cases were of patients who had most recently been to India. The first thought everyone had was that medical tourism for British citizens going to India for low-cost cosmetic surgery was to blame for NDM-1. The superbug victims from America weren’t medical tourists on their trips which lead scientists to be concerned that NDM-1 might become a global challenge soon.
India where superbug United States of America attacks originated from
Getting medical care in India is where numerous think the superbug has come from. This is as the two Canadian cases and all United States cases seem to trace back to that. Red Orbit reports the NDM-1 case in California involved a woman who received medical care after an automobile accident in India. The man in Illinois who got the superbug also had a medical problem. He had a urinary catheter for medical conditions that were pre-existing when traveling within the country. Before coming to the United States of America, the woman in Massachusetts had surgery and chemotherapy. All of the victims survived although the superbug would not die with antibiotics that are meant to treat drug-resistant infections. In Pakistan, there was a Belgian man who was in an auto accident and hospitalized in Pakistan. He was the first of the NDM-1 superbug victims to have a recorded death.
Hitchhiking superbug a global threat
Last month, cases of NDM-1 infection involving Britons who traveled to India for cheap plastic surgery were documented in an article in Lancet, a British health related journal. In the Lancet article, scientists describe NDM-1 as a gene that mutates bacteria to become resistant to the strongest antibiotics accessible. CBS News reports that bacteria carrying the NDM-1 gene are widespread in India. Bangladesh and Pakistan are also showing increase numbers of the NDM-1 gene. The superbug has found a way to get around the globe. It is hitching rides with anybody willing to go to the country and pick it up.
You will find too numerous individuals living close together in India
Right now, medical specialists are all together in Boston at the international meeting of microbiologists and doctors. In this meeting, the NDM-1 is being discussed because of the concern of how numerous individuals in India actually have it. The Boston Herald talks about antibiotics in India. Apparently you are able to get them over the counter for inexpensive prices. If one were to use it inappropriately, it would then become more resistant. The deadly bacteria would become something we couldn’t stop. Germs grow in the gut which is why NDM-1 spreads quickly places there is poor sanitation. Timothy Walsh, one of the authors of the Lancet article, told the Boston Herald that the overpopulated, unsanitary conditions in India are going to make the superbug spread widely. The superbug needs six to eight antibiotics to fight it off. Unfortunately, right now, only a couple of them work.
Additional reading
Red Orbit
redorbit.com/news/health/1916458/superbug_found_in_3_us_states_global_response_needed/
CBS News
cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20016335-10391704.html
Boston Herald
boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/09/14/superbug_patient_treated_at_mgh/
