Superbug NDM-1 To Kill Millions Unless New Antibiotics Found

"The potential for wider international spread and for NDM-1 to become endemic worldwide, are clear and frightening."- Lancet Journal of Infectious Diseases

A new superbug NDM-1 which is resistant to almost every antibiotic is poised to spread and wreak havoc across the world unless new antibiotics are developed quickly warns the UK Health Protection Agency.

The bug has already killed many thousands in India and Bangladesh and it seems that only now that it directly threatens Western populations are serious attempts starting to find an anti-biotic that works against it.

The bug has at this moment the potential to make all current anti-biotics redundant

Writing in the medical journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, co-authors of the research, Prof Timothy Walsh from Cardiff University, and Prof David Livermore, from the Health Protection Agency report that there have been 37 cases in the UK and warn the bug has 'alarming potential to spread and diversify'.

It is believed that the bug has entered the UK via patients infected with it after undergoing cosmetic surgery in India or Bangladesh. There is a growing trend for some to visit Asia for cosmetic surgery as it is often much cheaper than in the West, However such cut price surgery could lead to infection and the spread of this highly dangerous superbug around the globe.

One of the biggest worries is that NDM-1, which is named after the Indian city where it was first found being short for New Delhi-Metallo-1, has the ability to jump from type of bacterium to another meaning that many more common bacteria could become resistant to all known antbiotics causing pandemics of now treatable diseases.

UPDATE: INDIA REJECTS SUPERBUG CLAIMS

More on NDM-1:

Alarm over 'unbeatable' antibiotic-resistant superbug found in UK hospitals which could spread worldwide - Daily Mail

UNSTOPPABLE BUG TO SPREAD WORLDWIDE - Daily Mirror