Thursday, August 12, 2010

The New H1N1?

New Antibiotic Resistant "Superbug" Spreading

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

"India also provides cosmetic surgery for other Europeans and Americans, and it is likely NDM-1 will spread worldwide," the scientists wrote in the study.


Who knows whether this will be the next HIV or the next H1N1 -- it could be the genesis of an important new, honest threat to world health, or it could be hype. A gene has been found incorporated into bacteria carried by people who evidently picked it up in India, so-called medical tourists who then jetted back to their homes and are spreading the "supberbugs" there. I'll file this in the folder for stories which are interesting and have potential but will probably never develop into big deals.

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