Scientists find new superbug spreading from India

[ganimi kawa]

repeat post deleted

 

[ganimi kawa]

^^ MRSA is not that infrequent here ,too.

OT. Guys, looking at these nasties listed above, you can't help but feel love for streptococcus. The poor guy's still sensitive to good old penicilline.

Just like my first girlfriend who still falls for " there never was anyone else but you !" trick everytime!

 

[gubbi]

^^ +1.

Gubbi, you seem to be working in GB, what are the big bugs for the NHS ( VRSA maybe?)

Fortunately, I dont work in GB. I know someone who does work there and so have a fairly good idea of what ails NHS.

I used to keep abreast of all such resistant bugs in India (worked on P. falciparum FAS-II pathway inhibitors in IISc), but with my graduate studies and the pressure of "showing results" I hardly have time to do any follow up on such matters. And oh, a change in career field doesnt help either. But eventually I hope to switch back to what I trained for - a Pharmacist (I understand you got some beef against Pharmacists but believe me, its a very different picture here in US as opposed to that in India ). I gather you are a physician.

Btw, DOTS is the best way to go. Cant blame the Pharmacist all the time. Patient compliance and adherence is a big contributing factor for developing MDR strains.

 

[ganimi kawa]

I used to keep abreast of all such resistant bugs in India (worked on P. falciparum FAS-II pathway inhibitors in IISc), but with my graduate studies and the pressure of "showing results" I hardly have time to do any follow up on such matters.

That's impressive, mate! IISc is the place to be in India if you want to be a researcher!

(I understand you got some beef against Pharmacists but believe me, its a very different picture here in US as opposed to that in India ).

Yup! That is true. And about that venomous post against pharmacists; well, it was a combined effect of the working of pharmacists here and my residency blues (you know exactly what I'm talking about ).....
Oh; and that stuff about flirting with pharmacists,,, that was the last straw!

On topic,

Patient compliance and adherence is a big contributing factor for developing MDR strains.

This is the crux of the answer of mr. asim aquil's query in this thread earlier!

 

[Hafizzz]

Scientists find new superbug spreading from India

Credit: Reuters/Punit Paranjpe
By Kate Kelland and Ben Hirschler

LONDON | Wed Aug 11, 2010 5:45pm EDT

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.

MEDICAL TOURISM

In a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal on Wednesday, Walsh's team found NDM-1 was becoming more common in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan and was also imported back to Britain in patients returning after treatment.

"India also provides cosmetic surgery for other Europeans and Americans, and it is likely NDM-1 will spread worldwide," the scientists wrote in the study.

Walsh and his international team collected bacteria samples from hospital patients in two places in India, Chennai and Haryana, and from patients referred to Britain's national reference laboratory from 2007 to 2009.

They found 44 NDM-1-positive bacteria in Chennai, 26 in Haryana, 37 in Britain, and 73 in other sites in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. Several of the British NDM-1 positive patients had traveled recently to India or Pakistan for hospital treatment, including cosmetic surgery, they said.

NDM-1-producing bacteria are resistant to many antibiotics including carbapenems, the scientists said, a class of the drugs reserved for emergency use and to treat infections caused by other multi-resistant bugs like MRSA and C-Difficile.

Kallen of the CDC said the United States considered the infection a "very high priority," but said carbapenem resistance was not new in the United States. "The thing that is new is this particular mechanism," he said.

Experts cited two drugs that can stand up to carbapenem-resistant infections -- colistin, an older antibiotic that has some toxic side effects, and Pfizer's Tygacil.

For many years, antibiotic research has been a "Cinderella" sector of the pharmaceuticals industry, reflecting a mismatch between the scientific difficulty of finding treatments and the modest sales such products are likely to generate, since new drugs are typically saved only for the sickest patients.

But the increasing threat from superbugs is encouraging a rethink at the few large drugmakers still hunting for new antibiotics, including Pfizer, Merck, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis.

Anders Ekblom, global head of medicines development at AstraZeneca, whose Merrem antibiotic was the leading carbapenem, said he saw "great value" in investing in new antibiotics.

"We've long recognized the growing need for new antibiotics, he said. "Bacteria are continually developing resistance to our arsenal of antibiotics and NDM-1 is just the latest example."

Scientists find new superbug spreading from India | Reuters

India rejects UK scientists' 'superbug' claim
BBC News - India rejects UK scientists' 'superbug' claim

 

[aj_tech123]

guys they said 1000's deaths will occur in a month worldwide....but i didn't even see 100 deaths..
comment on this plz

 

[Hafizzz]

guys they said 1000's deaths will occur in a month worldwide....but i didn't even see 100 deaths..
comment on this plz

You did hear the News because it was a cover up by Indian lobbying in the USA.

India wants to protect her health industry so a cover up of the News (death tolls) is an absolute must.

 

[RAHUL INDIAN]

You did hear the News because it was a cover up by Indian lobbying in the USA.

India wants to protect her health industry so a cover up of the News (death tolls) is an absolute must.

wow breaking news.

 

[T90TankGuy]

what has any of this got to do with defence?

 

[aj_tech123]

You did hear the News because it was a cover up by Indian lobbying in the USA.

India wants to protect her health industry so a cover up of the News (death tolls) is an absolute must.

i didn't ask did they cover it up or not..
i asked whether 1000 deaths have occurred in a month around the world or NOT..if it true give me a source...don't troll.....