NEW DELHI, April 7: Urgent global action is needed to prevent the spread of a multi-drug-resistant ‘superbug’ after it was found in water supplies in the Indian capital, doctors said in research published on Thursday.
The study in The Lancet medical journal said that New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1 (NDM-1) producing bacteria were found in 51 out of 171 samples taken from water pools and rivulets and two out of 50 tap water samples in the city.
NDM-1, first identified in 2009, is a gene that enables some types of bacteria to be highly resistant to almost all antibiotics. Positive samples included those collected in and around the commercial and business hub of Connaught Place and the Red Fort area.
“International surveillance of resistance, incorporating environmental sampling as well as examination of clinical isolates needs to be established as a priority,” the team from Cardiff University in Britain wrote.
Mohammed Shahid, from the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state, added that potential for a wider, international spread of the superbug was “real and should not be ignored”. “Coordinated, concrete, and collective efforts are needed, initially to limit widespread dissemination, and finally to combat this emerging threatening resistance problem,” he said.
The researchers conducted the study in September and October last year, soon after warning that the superbug could be spread by foreign nationals coming to India for medical treatment.
At the time, the Indian government dismissed the research as scaremongering and criticised the naming of the bug after the Indian capital. But the World Health Organisation later called for monitoring after cases of infection were reported around the globe.
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