India water samples show lethal germ

[Skull and Bones]

Government on Thursday (August 12) expressed surprise at scientists in the United Kingdom linking a new superbug resistant to antibiotics to India and said that it was drafting a reply to an alert issued by Britain in this regard. The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), a nodal agency under the Health Ministry, is meeting today and "we would soon draft a reply to this," Secretary, Health Research, V M Katoch said. He said the ministry will examine the issue in detail but it was "unfortunate that this new bug, which is an environmental thing, has been attached to a particular country which is India in this case".

"I am surprised," he said, adding that, "this (the bug) is present in nature. It is a random event and cannot be transmitted". Katoch said that he was surprised that a research paper linked it with India as they should know it was a biological phenomenon. According to a paper published in scientific journal 'Lancet, the new superbug, which is said to be resistant even to most powerful antibiotics, has entered UK hospitals and is travelling with patients who had gone to countries like India and Pakistan for surgical treatments.

Bacteria that make an enzyme called NDM-1 or New Delhi-Metallo-1, have travelled back with NHS patients who went abroad to countries like India and Pakistan for treatments such as cosmetic surgery, it said. Although there have only been about 50 cases identified in the UK so far, scientists fear it will go global. NDM-1 can exist inside different bacteria, like Ecoli, and it makes them resistant to one of the most powerful groups of antibiotics - carbapenems. These are generally reserved for use in emergencies and to combat hard-to-treat infections caused by other multi-resistant bacteria. At least one of the NDM-1 infections the researchers analysed was resistant to all known antibiotics.

Similar infections have been seen in the US, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands and international researchers say that NDM-1 could become a major global health problem. Infections have already been passed from patient to patient in UK hospitals. Dr David Livermore, one of the researchers and who works for the UK's Health Protection Agency (HPA), said, "There have been a number of small clusters within the UK, but far and away the greater number of cases appear to be associated with travel and hospital treatment in the Indian subcontinent". The Department of Health has already put out an alert on the issue, he said.

Myth of the 'Indian' superbug- TIMESNOW.tv - Latest Breaking News, Big News Stories, News Videos

 

[tallboy123]

The drinking water in India and Pakistan is one of the biggest contributor to stomach, liver diseases. Hepatitis C is the clear example of it.

then millions should have been dead now..our population should have been 0.5 billion...
even i shouldn't be alive

 

[Gene]

I saw that running away from my shelf just a moment ago?? from which lab did it escape?

why didn't you catch that one before escaping to water !!

 

[Gene]

i heard many times that delhi's public water supply is very contaminated.is it true??

 

[Skull and Bones]

i heard many times that delhi's public water supply is very contaminated.is it true??

Yes, that's very much true.

 

[JayAtl]

THURSDAY, April 7 (HealthDay News) -- A gene that helps ......

the US is more concerned about your country - given the SARS episode and how you guys cover it up. we know the Indian media (Free) will perform check and balances there but the world saw how you hide SARS and risked a world wide calamity, all in the name of image protection. even dogs and cats are treated better than how you treat humans- well in other countries that dont serve them up at dinner time

 

[sanibhagwan]

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

Since it was identified in 2008, it has appeared in the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, and Sweden. Most of those infected had traveled to India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh.

Dude, the article you posted indict India, Pakistan & Bangladesh. Do you still want to continue arguing about it.

 

[Hafizzz]

India slams reports of ''superbug'' in Delhi water
India slams reports of ''superbug'' in Delhi water, IBN Live News

Both the NDM-1 positive samples were from Ramesh Nagar, west of the Yamuna River, "but the report itself states that the strain cannot grow in tap water as it is chlorinated," Negi said.When asked about the reports of presence of drug-resistant bacteria in water, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said she has sought detailed reports about it from DJB and Health Department."It (drug-resistant bacteria) has been found in water in some areas around the Red Fort. I have sought detailed reports about it," she said.Experts say it is the latest proof that the new drug-resistant bacteria, named after New Delhi, is widely circulating in the environment and could potentially spread to the rest of the world. The superbug can only be treated with a couple of highly toxic and expensive antibiotics. Since it was first identified in 2008, it has popped up in a number of countries, including the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada and Sweden. Most of those infections were in people who had recently travelled to or had medical procedures in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh. India had earlier protested against the naming of the bug after its capital, saying the research was not supported by scientific data.Director General of Health Services R K Srivastava said that that following the publication of the report in August last year, the government had written to the editor of the 'Lancet' asking him to publish a letter refuting the theory, but the magazine had refused to publish it.

India DENIES Superbug in Indian water just like India denies :

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

 

[Mutee]

Another conspiracy theory?

 

[Hafizzz]

India buckles, study to check superbug presence
India buckles, study to check superbug presence - The Times of India

NEW DELHI: After days of openly denying the "existence and public health importance" of the NDM-1 gene, India has finally decided to check the presence of superbugs in the Capital and its water supply lines.

Quietly yielding under pressure, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has decided to lead a study to gauge the "prevalence of Carbapenem resistance in Delhi's ICUs and environment". Carbapenems are the most powerful generation of antibiotics.

British scientists had recently claimed that the NDM-1 gene or the New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase gene makes bacteria highly resistant to all-known antibiotics, including Carbapenems.

A national workshop for scientists, who will undertake the six-month study, will be held on April 25.

Initially, it will be carried out in three hospitals – Safdarjung, Ram Manohar Lohia and Lady Hardinge. The study will look at all intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and whether any of the patients are resistant to Carbapenems. Some hospitals outside the National Capital are also being roped into it.

In case the results turn out to be positive, samples will also be collected from water samples in the locality around the hospitals and checked for the NDM-1 gene to infer that it's in the environment.

A crucial meeting to be held on Tuesday — under the aegis of director general of health services (DGHS) — will try to address how to look for the bugs, if any, are prevalent in the teeming metropolis' water supply. Senior officials from MCD, NDMC, Delhi Jal Board, DGHS and the city's top microbiologists will attend the meeting.

"We have decided to carry out our own study to confirm the presence of NDM-1 in patients admitted in the ICU and whether it has spread to the environment. NCDC will chair a six-month-long study that will begin in May. At present, we are finalizing the protocols," a Union health ministry official said.

The action comes in the wake of British doctors accusing the Indian government of suppressing the truth about presence of drug-resistant bacteria, NDM-1. They also alleged that India is threatening its own doctors against taking part in superbug studies.

Incidentally, the contentious issue — whether bad bugs or enzymes should be named after countries, places or people — has snowballed into a big debate. India is still upset with a drug-resistant gene being named after Delhi.

Officials from the medical journal, "The Lancet", on Monday told ToI that the issue would be taken up in the next meeting of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). "The debate over naming should not detract from the importance of the findings in the paper and its implications. We recognize that a discussion continues about the appropriateness of naming microorganisms, enzymes, genes, and their associated diseases with an identifier that some observers may feel stigmatizes a place or a people. This important and sensitive issue is being examined by editors and may be discussed at the next meeting of the ICMJE. For now on, naming is the responsibility of the authors of the paper, and in the case of NDM-1 we are continuing to use a name first published in 2008," an official from ``The Lancet" told ToI.

Naming the drug-resistant superbug, NDM-1, after India's capital city was "a big mistake," Lancet editor Dr Richard Horton had himself admitted a few months ago. The editor had said, "it was an error of judgment" on their part to allow the article get published with the name NDM-1 "as we didn't think of its implications for which I sincerely apologize". According to Dr Horton, it "stigmatized a single country and city".

In last August, after announcing the existence of this superbug created by the NDM-1 gene, scientists had said it acquired in hospitals. Last week, it did a U-turn, saying the gene was present in Delhi's public water supply — used by locals for drinking, washing and preparing their food. The scientists also claimed that the NDM-1 gene had spread to the bacteria that caused cholera and dysentery.

 

[AvidSpice]

^^^

Who are you cheering for? The Bug, India, Britain, The scientists or the journalist who wrote the article?

 

[Hafizzz]

^^^

Who are you cheering for? The Bug, India, Britain, The scientists or the journalist who wrote the article?

Cheering because India is finally doing something about the bug and not blindly denying the truth !!!

 

[jdme]

Er..Why should India act? It's obvious that Indians have natural immunity to it considering the fact that "100 million" are infected by it! On the other hand, it surely "helps" Britain bring back those pounds it's losing to Indian hospitals.