The battle between medical science and the bacteria that cause illness and deaths in humans is an old one. For years, bacteria had the upper hand. The introduction of penicillin, the first antibiotic, to the world’s pharmacopeia in the 1940s gave scientists the edge for a while. That’s no longer the case. Some bacteria are increasingly antibiotic resistant and lethal, though there usually is at least one drug available to treat it. Now, health officials report, a new superbug could change the pattern. There are almost no known drugs to combat it. If that sounds ominous, it is.
Researchers reported this week the discovery of a new gene, called New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1, in patients primarily in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Britain. The gene, the scientists say, produces bacteria very resistant to almost all current antibiotics, including drugs called carbapenems, reserved almost exclusively to treat vicious infections like MRSA and C-Difficile. The apparent lack of effective treatments against NDM-1 is worrisome.
That’s especially so since the antibiotic-resistant bacteria is spreading quickly. It’s already moved from Southeast Asia to Britain. Officials say that is because the ease of international travel erases barriers that once made transmission and spread of disease-causing bacteria from one locale to another difficult. That’s no longer true.
Indeed, some of the handful of NDM-1 cases already identified were discovered in British patients who had traveled to Asia in search of cheap medical care – including plastic surgery. They contracted the NDM-1 infections there and brought them home. Such easy vectors of transmission understandably frighten world health officials.
There’s considerable medical traffic between Europe and America and India, for example. If NDM-1 gains a foothold in the latter and medical tourism continues, it is possible that the highly dangerous bacteria could spread and the number of NDM-1 related infections rise rapidly. That in turn could lead to debilitating illnesses that require extensive treatment and cause substantial increases in health-care costs around the world.