Superbug panics world
Kyaemon
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2010-08/16/c_13446838.htm
BEIJING, Aug. 16 (Xinhuanet) — A new superbug, known as NDM-1, which stands for New-Delhi-Metallo, is likely to become one of the deadliest pandemics worldwide, media reported Monday.
The bacterial gene has reportedly become resistant to all known antibiotics, including the most powerful class called carbapenems.
Researchers believe it was transferred through medical surgeries.
The superbug has claimed the life of a Belgian man, the first death of its kind.
So far, the superbug gene has been identified in 37 people who returned to UK after visits to India or Pakistan.
Three people in Australia were reportedly infected after traveling to India for surgery.
“We are potentially at the beginning of another wave of antibiotic resistance, though we still have the power to stop it,” Christopher Thomas, a professor of molecular genetics at the University of Birmingham, said in a statement.
“Better surveillance and infection control procedures might halt the gene’s spread,” he said.
The superbug was identified last year in a Swedish patient in India.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6bWezKAlZ0&feature=fvw
British researchers face recently stated that a newly-identified gene mutation may be responsible for a new class of drug-resistant superbugs. According to ABC News, researchers say a group of plastic surgery patients who traveled from India or Pakistan back to Great Britain returned carrying bacteria which has an antibiotic-resistant “superbug gene” known as NDM-1. NDM-1 stands for New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase. AFP quotes researchers as saying that a “new class of superbugs…could spread worldwide.” ”The New York Times” quotes experts calling the gene mutation “worrying” and “ominous.”