Illinois, California, and Massachusetts have shown cases of the superbug NDM-1. This is a superbug a British health related journal had brought up last month and has entered the United States now. Many assume the bug came from India while all three cases were of patients who had lately visited India. British citizens had been trying to get cheap plastic surgery in India when coming home with the superbug which is why originally, the NDM-1 was blamed on medical tourism. Now scientists are concerned that NDM-1 might be a worldwide threat considering the American superbug victims were not medical tourists at all.
Numerous think India is where the United States superbug infections started
Getting health related care in India is where many think the superbug has come from. This is as the two Canadian cases and all United States cases seem to trace back to that. The woman in California that got NDM-1 had health related care in India after being in an automobile accident, reports Red Orbit. In Illinois, a man with a pre-existing medical conditions and a urinary catheter contracted the superbug infection when traveling in India. The woman in Massachusetts traveled to the U.S. Before doing this, she actually did chemotherapy and had some surgery. All of the victims survived although the superbug would not die with antibiotics that are meant to treat drug-resistant attacks. A Belgian who had been hospitalized in Pakistan after an auto incident was the first known death from the NDM-1 superbug.
Hitchhiking superbug a global threat
Lancet, a British medical journal, recorded all cases of Britons who went to India for cheap plastic surgery and came home with cases of NDM-1. Scientists in the article explain that the gene that NDM-1 is mutates bacteria so it can start to resist all bacteria. The NDM-1 gene is spread through all of India, says Columbia Broadcasting System News. Bacteria carrying the gene seem common. Scientists say the NDM-1 gene is becoming increasingly common in Bangladesh and Pakistan as well. Any person going to the undeveloped nations appears to be picking up the superbug and delivering it along with them.
Unsanitary, overpopulated India
As a result of how common the NDM-1 gene is in India right now, in Boston at the international meeting of microbiologists and doctors there is quite the talk of the bug. In India, one can get antibiotics over the counter for cheap, says the Boston Herald. If one were to use it inappropriately, it would then become more resistant. The deadly bacteria would become something we couldn’t stop. Poor sanitation facilitates the spread of NDM-1, which thrives in germs that grow within the human gut. India is so unsanitary the superbug can spread more quickly. This comes from the Boston Herald who spoke to Timothy Walsh of the Lancet article. Although one or two antibiotics can really work for the superbug, there are still more that are needed to fight it.
Red Orbit
redorbit.com/news/health/1916458/superbug_found_in_3_us_states_global_response_needed/
CBS News
cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20016335-10391704.html
Boston Herald
boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/09/14/superbug_patient_treated_at_mgh/
