Ministry: Superbug conclusion irrational

Aug 13, 2010 - Age Correspondent |

New Delhi

The Union health ministry has strongly refuted the conclusions of an article in scientific journal Lancet saying that India is possibly the source of a “superbug”, a bacteria that is resistant to strongest of the antibiotics. It also objected to the naming of the drug resistant bug as New Delhi metallo-b lactamase (NDM-1).

While the high-ranking health officials dismissed the conclusions as “irrational”, medical experts said that this was a propaganda against medical tourism which is a growing industry in the country. The ministry also hinted towards conflict of interest in the publication, which was funded by two pharmaceutical companies, apart from the European Union, that produce medicines for treating drug-resistant bacteria.
The health ministry, in consultation with V.M. Katoch, who is secretary of department of health research (DHR), and director-general of the ICMR, said that the conclusions of the publication was “frightening” but was not backed by any scientific data.
A statement from the ministry said, “...it is known that bacteria may encode resistance for many drugs...this is a phenomenon which occurs in nature — in the environment, may be intestines of humans and animals universally. Their might be billions of such happenings at any moment. It should have been highlighted that getting infection by such drug resistant bacteria is a matter of chance, is a global phenomenon and is preventable by sound infection prevention strategies which are followed in any good hospital.” A ministry official added that in 2009 an alert against such a drug resistant bacteria was announced in the UK hospitals.
A similar exercise was undertaken in Israel and the United States also. Further, the official added that the drug resistant bacteria may be travelling all over the world due to increased international links. “But that does not mean that the source to the drug resistant bug was India alone,” he said.
Mr Katoch told a news agency that to say that getting operated in India was dangerous on account of patients contracting the drug resistant bacteria was “totally irrational”.
“It is unfortunate that this new bug, which is an environmental thing, has been attached to a particular country,” he said.

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