Researchers discover bacteria responsible for spawning deadly 'super superbugs' in New Delhi water supplies

Tuesday, April 12, 2011 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: superbugs, bacteria, health news

(NaturalNews) Tens of millions of Indians are regularly being exposed to a very serious "superbug" gene through their water supplies, says a new study published in the journal The Lancet. Mark Toleman and Timothy Walsh from the Cardiff University School of Medicine in the UK say that New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1 (NDM-1) is responsible for spurring the growth and spread of both antibiotic-resistant superbugs, and now even "super superbugs" -- and this sinister gene is turning up all around the world.

"The inhabitants of New Delhi are continually being exposed to multidrug-resistant and NDM-1-positive bacteria", said Toleman concerning his findings. "We would expect that perhaps as many as half a million people are carrying NDM-1-producing bacteria as normal (gut) flora in New Dehli alone."

The NDM-1 gene, which is believed to latch onto normal bacteria like cholera and dysentery and turn them into more virulent strains, is part of the reason why most of today's antibiotic drugs no longer work. Otherwise normal bacteria have mutated so significantly that even the most powerful drugs in existence are just barely able to fight them anymore -- and according to the report, hundreds of thousands of people are suspected to be carrying the NDM-1 superbug gene in their digestive systems.

Researchers warn that India is not the only place where NDM-1 is spreading, either. The entire world is threatened by NDM-1, they say.

"We are at a critical point in time where antibiotic resistance is reaching unprecedented levels," said Zsuzsanna Jakab, regional director of the World Health Organization (WHO) for Europe. "Given the growth of travel and trade in Europe and across the world, people should be aware that until all countries tackle this, no country alone can be safe."

Other superbugs like Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP), which recently turned up in a number of Southern California hospitals and nursing homes, are also a serious threat. CRKP is said to kill roughly 40 percent of those who contract it (https://www.naturalnews.com/031859_superbug_n...). Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, on the other hand, kills roughly 20 percent of those who contract it in the US (https://www.naturalnews.com/026264_MRSA_hospi...).

Sources for this story include:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/07/uk...

http://www.ndm1bacteria.com/