Rather than souvenirs, Brits looking for cheaper nip-and-tucks in India have brought home a new superbug infection that could spread throughout the world. Plastic surgery clients have contracted a new class of superbug infection in south Asia and carried it to Britain, where it could spread worldwide. The new superbug carries a bacteria-jumping gene that makes infections impervious to probably the most powerful antibiotics accessible. .
Superbug gene makes deadly bacteria drug-resistant
A new superbug infection set off alarms that it could spread worldwide after reaching Britain from India via medical tourism. There are few drugs strong enough to treat it, researchers said. Reuters reports that researchers have found a new gene called New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1, in patients in south Asia and in Britain. Most antibiotics, including carbapenems-the most powerful class accessible, are ineffective on bacteria that are altered by the NDM-1 gene. Drug experts say the research pipeline has no new antibiotics in progress to suppress it. With international travel in search of cheap procedures such as cosmetic surgery increasing, Timothy Walsh, who led the study, told Reuters he fears the new superbug could soon spread across the globe.
Superbug seeks to spread and diversify
In an article published online Wednesday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, the researchers said the superbug gene was already circulating widely in India, where the health care system is much less likely to detect it or have adequate antibiotics to fight it. The Associated Press reports the superbug gene has been identified in 37 people in Britain with drug-resistant bacterial infections after having plastic surgery in India or Pakistan. Medical researchers in Australia, Canada, the U.S., the Netherlands and Sweden have also detected the superbug gene . The superbug gene is found on DNA structures, called plasmids, that could be very easily copied and transferred between bacteria, giving the superbug “an alarming potential to spread and diversify,” the authors said.
Money, not superbugs, entice Big Pharma
The pharmaceutical industry isn’t motivated to fight superbugs. Because bacteria adapts so quickly, new antibiotics don’t have the shelf life to be sufficiently lucrative . The Wall Street Journal reports that some pharmaceutical corporations are looking for government subsidies to ensure they get an adequate return on investment to shareholders for addressing a global health threat. They say future earnings are also confronted by strict demands on research and development from regulators. Even so, some large drug makers are engaged in antibiotic research, including Pfizer and Merck within the United States, Novartis in Switzerland and GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca within the U.K.
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Reuters
reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67A0YU20100811
Associated Press
google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gpFQ3Bz7hIFhSsHlYpROVwTVwwoAD9HHAI6G0
Wall Street Journal
online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100811-710190.html
