NDM-1 Superbug
Posted: 12 Aug 2010, 08:02
From the news:
A new superbug which is resistant to even the most powerful antibiotics has arrived in UK hospitals.
Experts warned the bacteria have the potential to spread rapidly around the world and ultimately render all the drugs typically used to fight infection useless.
The superbug is already widespread in India and Pakistan and patients going to these countries for medical treatment including cosmetic surgery have helped it spread to Britain, according to the scientists.
There have been around 50 cases in the UK so far, including one in Scotland last year.
The new superbug carries a gene called NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo-lactamase) that makes it resistant to carbapenem antibiotics, which are used on hard-to-treat infections that evade other drugs.
It is feared that NDM-1 could easily jump to other strains of bacteria that are already resistant to many other antibiotics and create dangerous infections that would be almost impossible to treat.
So far two types of bacteria have been host to NDM-1, both of which can cause urinary tract infections and blood poisoning.
Some of the patients seen in the UK have had mild symptoms while others were seriously ill.
Writing in the The Lancet Infectious Diseases medical journal, the researchers said: “The potential of NDM-1 to be a worldwide public health problem is great and co-ordinated international surveillance is needed."
What do you think guys? Will it kill us all? D:
A new superbug which is resistant to even the most powerful antibiotics has arrived in UK hospitals.
Experts warned the bacteria have the potential to spread rapidly around the world and ultimately render all the drugs typically used to fight infection useless.
The superbug is already widespread in India and Pakistan and patients going to these countries for medical treatment including cosmetic surgery have helped it spread to Britain, according to the scientists.
There have been around 50 cases in the UK so far, including one in Scotland last year.
The new superbug carries a gene called NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo-lactamase) that makes it resistant to carbapenem antibiotics, which are used on hard-to-treat infections that evade other drugs.
It is feared that NDM-1 could easily jump to other strains of bacteria that are already resistant to many other antibiotics and create dangerous infections that would be almost impossible to treat.
So far two types of bacteria have been host to NDM-1, both of which can cause urinary tract infections and blood poisoning.
Some of the patients seen in the UK have had mild symptoms while others were seriously ill.
Writing in the The Lancet Infectious Diseases medical journal, the researchers said: “The potential of NDM-1 to be a worldwide public health problem is great and co-ordinated international surveillance is needed."
What do you think guys? Will it kill us all? D: