Researchers dismiss superbug controversy

VARANASI/CHENNAI - Experts across India on Friday said that the issue of superbug of Indian origin, or New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM-1), is unnecessarily being fuelled as similar resistances have been found in other parts of the world.

“I don’t think that there is a basis to all of these rumours. Resistance phenomena was always there and there are different mechanism, one after the other mechanisms are discovered,” said Dr.M.R Sen, Professor of Microbiology at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU).upriya Upadhyay, a microbiology research scholar at the BHU, said that there is no need to panic and treatment for the same was available.

“All enzymes of Betalactom group fail in front of this (Superbug). But more combination therapies are there, TG cycling lots of aminoglycocides,… combinations with which it can be treated. So there is nothing to panic because these mechanisms have come before also, not in India but in other countries who have claimed that India is responsible for spreading this,” Upadhyay added.

Meanwhile, in Chennai, researchers said that NDM-1 has been going on for a while now and the superbug is not confined to a certain area.

“Just to give us awareness, that’s OK, this type of resistance is there and we have to find ways to tackle it, but it is not confined only to this particular geographic location. It is also present in other parts so since there is a lot of intercontinental or other travel by a lot of people these days. So this type of transmission could happen from any country to any other country,” said Dr. Padma Krishnan, Professor, Department of Microbiology, Madras University.

In a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal on Wednesday, it was found NDM-1 was becoming more common in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan and was also imported back to Britain in patients returning after treatment. (ANI)