A superbug thriving in India that is spreading via air travel worldwide was brought to the U.S. by at least three infected people. Image: CC Y/Flickr

A new superbug that a British medical journal called attention to last month has emerged in the U.S. People infected with the superbug known as NDM-1 turned up in hospitals in Massachusetts, California and Illinois. All three had recently spent time in India, where the superbug is believed to have originated. Previously,  medical tourism was blamed for the spread of NDM-1 after British citizens traveling to India for cheap plastic surgery brought home the superbug. But the fact that the American superbug victims were not medical tourists is leading scientists to believe that the potential of NDM-1 as a worldwide threat is more serious than first thought.

Superbug infections in U.S. traced to India

Recently discovered cases of superbug infection in the U.S., along with two others in Canada, involve people who received medical care in India. Red Orbit reports that the NDM-1 case in California involved a woman who received medical care after a car accident in India. In Illinois, a man with a pre-existing medical conditions and a urinary catheter contracted the superbug infection while traveling in India. In Massachusetts, a woman from India had surgery and chemotherapy there before traveling to the U.S. In all three U.S. cases the superbugs weren’t killed by antibiotics typically used to treat drug-resistant infections, but all of the victims survived. A Belgian who had been hospitalized in Pakistan after a car accident was the first known death from the NDM-1 superbug.

Hitchhiking superbug a global threat

Last month, cases of NDM-1 infection involving Britons who traveled to India for cheap plastic surgery were documented in an article in Lancet, a British medical journal. In the Lancet article, scientists describe NDM-1 as a gene that mutates bacteria to become resistant to the strongest antibiotics available. CBS News reports that bacteria carrying the NDM-1 gene are widespread in India. Scientists say the NDM-1 gene is becoming increasingly common in Bangladesh and Pakistan as well. The superbug is hitching rides around the world with people visiting those undeveloped countries.

Unsanitary, overpopulated India

Medical specialists attending an international meeting of microbiologists and doctors in Boston this week are very concerned about NDM-1, particularly because of its prevalence in India. The Boston Herald reports that antibiotics are cheap and sold over the counter in India. Inappropriate use spreads drug resistance among deadly bacteria. Poor sanitation facilitates the spread of NDM-1, which thrives in germs that grow in the human gut. Timothy Walsh, one of the authors of the Lancet article, told the Boston Herald that the overpopulated, unsanitary conditions in India are going to make the superbug spread widely. He said at the present time one or two superbug antibiotics are effective, but six to eight are needed.

Brits have caught a deadly virus by traveling to India for plastic surgery. CC by aesop

Instead of souvenirs, Brits looking for discounted nip-and-tucks in India have brought home a new superbug infection that could spread worldwide. A new class of superbug has infected plastic surgery patients in south Asia who have carried it to the U.K., and from there it could spread around the globe. A gene interchangeable with bacteria in the new superbug makes infections resistant to the most powerful antibiotic drugs. Experts say governments should come up with programs to coax more antibiotic research from Big Pharma, which is preoccupied with profitable maladies such as erectile dysfunction.

Drug-resistant superbug gene makes bacteria deadly

Researchers say there are few drugs available to defeat this superbug. Reuters reports that a newly discovered gene — New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1 — has been found by researchers in patients in both south Asia and the U.K. Bacteria are altered by the NDM-1 gene to become highly resistant to most antibiotics, including carbapenems, the most powerful class available. Drug experts say the research pipeline has no new antibiotics in progress to suppress it. Timothy Walsh, who led the study, told Reuters he fears the new superbug could soon spread across the globe with international travel for cheap cosmetic surgery procedures increasing.

Superbug lives to migrate and mutate

The superbug gene was already circulating widely in India, the researchers said in an article published online Wednesday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases. The Associated Press reports that 37 people in the U.K. who had plastic surgery in India or Pakistan and contracted antibiotic-resistant infections have been diagnosed with the superbug gene. Medical researchers in Australia, Canada, the U.S., the Netherlands and Sweden have also detected the superbug gene. The authors of the Lancet article said the gene is detected on DNA structures called plasmids that are copied and passed on with ease between bacteria, leading them to declare that the superbug has “an alarming potential to spread and diversify.”

Money, not superbugs, entice Big Pharma

Superbugs don’t pique the pharmaceutical industry’s interest. Because bacteria adapt so quickly, new antibiotics don’t have the shelf life to be sufficiently lucrative. The Wall Street Journal reports that to ensure they get an adequate return on investment to shareholders for addressing a global health threat, some pharmaceutical companies are looking for government subsidies. Strict research and development demands from official regulators are also blamed for cutting into future earnings. However, some big drug companies are jumping into the antibiotic research pool, including Pfizer and Merck in the U.S., Novartis in Switzerland and GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca in the U.K.

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