Superbug Gene Surfaces Twice in Austria

(AP)  Austria's health ministry is reporting two cases of a new gene that allows bacteria to become a superbug.

The ministry says experts at the medical university in the southern city of Graz detected the gene, known as NDM-1, in two people, both of whom are believed to have been infected in hospitals abroad.

A statement Friday said a person from Pakistan was released in good health from Graz's university clinic last year after successful treatment. It said another person from Kosovo is still under medical supervision there.

Researchers say the gene - which appears to be circulating widely in India - alters bacteria, making them resistant to nearly all known antibiotics.

Earlier this month, scientists warned this type of drug resistance could soon appear worldwide as people getting cosmetic surgery in India have brought the gene back to Britain.

Experts warned the booming medical tourism industries in India and Pakistan could fuel a surge in antibiotic resistance, as patients import dangerous bugs to their home countries.

The resistant gene has also been detected in Australia, Canada, the U.S., the Netherlands and Sweden. Researchers said since many Americans and Europeans travel to India and Pakistan for elective procedures like cosmetic surgery, it was likely the superbug gene would spread worldwide.

[SunDog8259]

It's just an enzyme called New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, it's not part of the patients DNA, so it can't be copied from the host like some viruses can do. Infected people could spread it though. Bacteria often swap genetic information anyway, such as antibiotic resistance. The "super-bug" here is just an E. coli, not particularly pathogenic as staph is. There are already drug resistant versions of staph like MRSA and CMRSA. The later reproduces faster because it doesn't carry extra genetic baggage for antibiotic resistance, therefore I would consider CMRSA generally more worrisome. I always use hand sanitizer if out in public. If I get a cut or especially a scrape I use Betadine? which kills anything. I got a an annoying skin infection after having a routine hospital procedure and the iodine cured it quickly. It may be old, but it works.

[generey]

Wonderful...I've been called many thing's but never a "superbug".

[statins321]

Ha, I'm in medical school and we had a lecture on this multi-resistant bacteria just yesterday. One of the few drugs that has shown to fight the microorganism is Colistin, which has been around since the 1940's. Colistin has been primarily used in drugs in the same class as Neosporin (which really has a weak antibiotic effect). Because Colistin has not been a major factor in the last half century, bacteria have not developed resistance to the drug; hence, its effectiveness.

[ibsteve2u]

India is throwing a hissy-fit over this report: http://www.scidev.net/en/news/india-rejects-new-delhi-superbug-study.html

They particularly don't like the naming of the gene (the ND in NDM stands for "New Delhi".

I found that to be amusing, for as the end of the linked article notes, Indian hospitals admittedlh do not monitor for resistance to antibiotics in use and switch them to ensure that they do not breed bacteria with "super genes"...i.e., resistance to bacteria.

lolll...I'd say something else about India and their cavalier attitude towards the possibility of negative consequences arising from squeezing as much profit as possible out of any and all things, but you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between there and modern America, so what is the point?

[dadirt]

And people go to India and Pakistan for plastic surgery for what? Risk of life and limb and malaria and a host of other diseases.

[wyodutch]

Looks like Australia is reaping great benefit from their
third-world immigrants.

[wyodutch]

I said Austria, the voice recognition software made an error.