Can an already troubled health care system in India - much less its political system - handle NDM-1? By
50 percent of bacterial infections in Indian hospitals are resistant to
commonly used antibiotics, and polls show that many are widespread bacterial pathogens
India also resistant to powerful, broad spectrum
antibiotics. In 2010, a team of South Asian and British scientists have analyzed
bacterial infections in hospitals in New Delhi, and found that 24 percent of the
and can withstand the hospital of last resort intravenous antibiotics >> << called "karbapenemy" and 13 percent were endowed
super-resistant gene, known as "New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1" or
NDM-1, which provides resistance to karbapenemam and at least 14
Other antibiotics. "All the fear of hell," says medical microbiologist Chand Wattal, August Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi. Since then, NDM-1 bacteria were found in water supplies >> << and puddles around New Delhi and in patients more than 35 countries, according to Cardiff University
Tim Walsh microbiologist . Many of these patients
is a "medical tourists" who came from Europe,
Middle East, North and South America to India and Pakistan for inexpensive
care. There are several new drugs to treat the development of microbes that
NDM-1 ulcers. In Western Hospital, "gram-positive" bacteria, which are structurally
vulnerable to antibiotics and disinfectants usually
dominate. Hospitals in India and other tropical country
"Gram-negative" bacteria that are enclosed in a tough outer membrane >> << that may strattera reflect antibiotics and antiseptics, are more common. Most
, drug research and development industry is concentrated in the western markets
"places like India, can only wait for new drugs
Gram-negative," and died from an incurable infection
inevitably rise, says that social fund health Ramanan << India >> Laxminarayan. Effective localization may be difficult to realize in the
India. The country has one of the highest burden of infectious diseases in the world >> << and use of antibiotics is not installed, and the rampant and excessive
to use that lead to resistant strains. In slums like Ekta Vihar, where barefoot children play in the narrow alleys >> << stated in open gutters, many can not afford a full course of antibiotics
when they get sick. The usual practice, says Dr. Sharma
Lala, who worked in the slums of Delhi for ten years to buy some pills >> << instead of the risk of developing drug-resistant bugs. Elsewhere, more rich consume antibiotics condition
not require them, such as colds and diarrhea, polls show. There is much potential for the type of medical microbiological monitoring >> << to track spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria >>. For << Laxminarayan, disease from surveillance
program effectively collects information only for two
from 640 districts. The policy of national pride further complicate the picture.
The new super-resistant gene was first discovered in Europe in patients
Whoever has gone to India and Pakistan to provide medical care. But when the British >> << scientists named it in honor of the city, which seemed to be happening,
, and warned the medical journal
The Lancet, that medical tourists may be at risk, Indian politicians, media, and doctors were indignant. National Center for India for Disease Control conducted a "days of open objects" public health significance of NDM-1
Times of India reported. The Indian Express wrote that the NDM-1 was "conspiracy to harm the Indian medical tourism." Bum medical industry
India Tourism brings hundreds of thousands of foreign >> << patients each year, seeking a break from high costs
and long wait times for surgery at home. New Delhi, cardio-surgeon Naresh Trehan, who treats medical tourists
do not appreciate the city belonging to the new Superbug.
, Error Resilience is a global problem, Trehan said. After >> << all "when AIDS was discovered, you do not call it New-1," he says. In disputes of an NDM-twisted, the Indian government quickly
convened an advisory committee on antibiotic resistance,
, and sailed an ambitious proposal to ban the sale of antibiotics without medical prescription
. He was removed after protests by
pharmacists and others who said it would be difficulty accessing
saving antibiotics among the rural poor. But politics was
likely be implemented in any case, as a policy of health decided
at the state level in India, rather than at the federal level. It is possible that NDM-1 is to get more popular and "get a lot more scary," as
Times of India put it
before political will to do something about this issue >> << merge. How many lives will be ruined by an infection at the same time
remains to be seen. "Errors did not expect us to catch up on our observation;
they are fun to go forward," says Laxminarayan. "This does not mean that the end of >> << antibiotics or another is," he says. "It is here in the
many cases."
This story was reported by Grant traveling partner Atlantic. .
