The fear that “superbugs” resistant to antibiotics will develop is not a new one. This week, the medical journal “The Lancet” published a paper reporting an antibiotic resistant strain of a bacteria, New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase 1 (NDM-1), which poses a “potentially major global health problem”.
This is clearly a worrying and serious development, and many newspapers took the opportunity to use panic-fuelled headlines. The Guardian, for example, declared that “the era of antibiotics is coming to a close” and that “…the post-antibiotic apocalypse is within sight”.
There is also another angle to this which the media have seized upon: this strain of bacteria has reportedly been introduced into the UK by “medical tourists” who travel from the UK to India for surgical procedures. There is an implication that Indian hospitals are somewhat less clean than those in the UK and are therefore responsible for the NDM-superbug entering UK hospitals.
Indian scientists have been quick to respond. “Baseless, unfair and circulated with an intention to malign the country’s flourishing medical tourism industry,” is how senior doctors in Delhi have responded to the controversy. They also take issue with the use of the term “New Delhi” in the name of the antibiotic.
So, we will have to wait and see how this story turns out – a serious debate about the problems of antibiotic resistance, or a diplomatic spat between India and the UK about the ethics of medical tourism and the hygiene of Indian hospitals.
// Esther Crooks
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