Drug-Resistant Germs in India Spreading to West, Scientists Say

[Joanne98]

Source: Bloomberg

Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- People who travel to India and Pakistan for cheaper health care may be at risk from a new type of drug-resistant bacteria, an international team of scientists reported.

The researchers found a gene that enables the bacteria to resist treatment with a class of antibiotics called carbapenems in 1.9 percent of samples from patients in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Haryana, according to the study in the journal Lancet. Reports from 37 patients in the U.K. who had the resistant strains were also analyzed, and the researchers found that most had received treatment at hospitals in India and Pakistan.

When carbapenems are ineffective, doctors are limited to two drugs: Colistin, a 50-year-old medicine known to cause kidney damage, and Pfizer Inc.’s Tygacil. If millions of people in the Indian subcontinent must rely on these last-resort medications, it’s only a matter of time before resistance develops for these drugs, Timothy Walsh, who led the study, said yesterday in a telephone interview.

In the last three to four years, this kind of resistance has “increased dramatically in India and continues to increase,” said Walsh, a professor of medical microbiology and antimicrobial resistance at Cardiff University in Wales. “The possibility of this becoming a global problem very quickly is immense.”


Read more: http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=aTMMDumNbdq8

[KoKo]

1. RIGHT... PANDEMIC II...Let's RAMP UP the Vaccines...More Money for Big Pharma...

These stories from suspect sources with a big interest in "Pandemic Porn" start to get very old...after awhile.. Don't they?

[Alcibiades]

2. Not funded by the American health care industrial complex

"International team of scientists" = industry shills.

[Newsjock]

3. Superbug from India found in Canada

Source: The Globe and Mail

A new drug resistant superbug originating in India has spread around the world – including to Canada – in part because of medical tourism.

Researchers said on Wednesday they had found a new gene called New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1, in patients in South Asia and in Britain.

A Canadian scientist said NDM-1 has also been found in an Alberta patient.

NDM-1 makes bacteria highly resistant to almost all antibiotics, including the most powerful class called carbapenems, and experts say there are no new drugs on the horizon to tackle it.

... With international travel in search of cheaper healthcare increasing, particularly for procedures such as cosmetic surgery, Timothy Walsh, who led the study, said he feared the new superbug could soon spread across the globe.


Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/superbug-from-india-found-in-canada/article1669006/

[virgogal]

4. More good news.

:sarcasm:

[crim son]

5. Wasn't it just yesterday

that we were told that the danger of a flu pandemic was over? Thank heaven there's a new deadly illness to get all worked up about.

[derby378]

6. Well, I survived H1N1, maybe I can squeak through this...

On a purely medical level, YIKES!

[KurtNYC]

7. I'm still waiting for those killer bees to get us all

they are about 30 years over due.

[Chakab]

8. My god, I'd forgotten about the "killer bees."

When I was a kid in the 80s in Texas, I was deathly afraid that my parents and I were going to be stung to death inside of our house by the giant advancing swarm of bees after it came over the border from Mexico because I had seen several news reports about them. Talk about over blown hysteria.

[Hekate]

11. They're in my county in Calif: a woman got in her car, started the engine, and was swarmed...

Fortunately she had the windows up, but they battered the car like hail. The critters had nested in a meter box recessed into the ground and were disturbed by the sound of the car starting up.

The following is from 2002 and may not refer to the exact incident I remember reading, but it is my town that is mentioned, 5th article down:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.stingshield.com/2002news.htm
AFRICANIZED HONEY BEES CONFIRMED IN SANTA BARBARA COUNTY
Santa Barbara County, CA --- The Santa Barbara County Agricultural Commissioner's Office received confirmation today of the first Africanized honey bee (AHB) find in the County. The sample had been collected by the Santa Barbara Coastal Vector Control District (SBCVCD) and was confirmed by the California Department of Food and Agriculture's laboratory in Sacramento.
"We've been expecting this", said Bill Gillette, Santa Barbara County Agricultural Commissioner. "AHB has been slowly moving northward since it first migrated into the California deserts in 1994."
The samples were taken from two bee swarms in Goleta, after the bees were reported to the Vector Control District. SBCVCD destroyed all remaining bees at the time the sample was taken, and no one was stung. >snip<
~~~~~~~~~~~~

[pitohui]

14. yes and a woman jogger in las vegas was killed by the killer bees

that doesn't mean we shouldn't jog nor does this scare piece mean we shouldn't go for medical care

[Hekate]

15. The SB County part is not a scare piece but an Ag Commissioner's report/Vector Control

The Ag Commissioner isn't National Enquirer.

Non-scary quote:
Although these traits have earned Africanized honey bees the nickname "killer bees", in the twelve years since their arrival in the United States via Texas, AHB has only been responsible for about twelve human deaths, mostly in Texas and Arizona. The average number of deaths per year caused by the common European Honey bee in the US is around 40.

Non-scary precautions quote:
Experts stress that some common sense precautions will greatly reduce the chance that you will ever encounter AHB. These include removing debris from yards, sealing openings in exterior walls, and skirting mobile homes to the ground. If you see a bee swarm, leave it alone. All bee swarms are non-aggressive in nature as long as they are not disturbed. If aggressive bees are encountered, run away as quickly as possible and seek shelter in a car or house. Try and protect your face as you run, as the bees will focus their attack there. The attached information prepared by the University of California...

Non-scary advice quote:
In an emergency situation where individuals are being stung multiple times, call 911. In non-emergency situations, the Santa Barbara Coastal Vector Control District will provide service or referrals for residents of the unincorporated areas of the county. Residents of the incorporated areas should contact their specific city or hire a private pest control operator for bee removal on their property.

And source:
(News Release, Agricultural Commissioner's Office, 805.681.5600; Santa Barbara Coastal Vector Control District, 805.969.5050, 9/3/02)

[crim son]

18. You are so right!

I was terrified of them as a young teenager. I wonder what ever happened to them?

On edit: I just read the other replies. Being stung to death is a horrible, horrible thing but more people are probably struck by lightning annually than are killed by bees.

[pitohui]

10. i have read the article twice in vain for any mention of an actual illness

they don't mention or describe any illness, it sounds like they only discovered that this bacteria exists because of "tests"

lots of bacteria exist without doing anything much

if there was any illness this superbug caused, strange they wouldn't mention it...instead they say they had to test patients of some indian hospital to find 8% had the bug...yet they had the bug all unknowing

i'm going to conclude this is much ado abt nothing until i get evidence to the contrary

[crim son]

20. I wondered if the article indicated the beginning of a push

to discourage medical tourism, the same way we were scared off Canadian pharmaceuticals.

[pitohui]

9. so what? i'm asking not telling but if this superbug doesn't do anything who cares?

it seems like they need special tests to even tell that this supposed "superbug" exists...in which case, if it does fuck-all, who cares?

i'm pretty sure almost all of us have bacteria on and in our bodies that never go away, even when we take a course of antibiotics but again...so what? who cares? if they're not doing anything, why does it matter?

seems like the entire piece is a "hit" on medical tourism, a vital necessity for those of us who aren't rich or canadian, maybe the canadian w. his public health plan can laugh at the person who travels to mexico or india for health care but for a middle class american like myself that's just the real world...i can and have traveled for health care because the choice otherwise was to DO WITHOUT and the immediate threat is more real than a "maybe" "one day" this superbug "might" mutate into "something bad"

i'm sorry these docs aren't in favor of international travel but its an internat'l world they're not putting THAT toothpaste back in the tube just to protect his profession from internat'l competitors

as for crapping on the cosmetic surgery traveler, i tell you what, the day that ageism doesn't exist and sexism doesn't exist -- the day that getting cosmetic surgery doesn't have immediate financial pay-off for many women -- you get back to me on that day and tell me how evil it is to get affordable plastic surgery -- i've known women for whom that $4K breast implant meant immediate tens of thousands in additional earnings -- we live in the real world not in a fantasy world where everyone gets a doc's salary

[Divine Discontent]

12. another way to search "indian superbug" is to just go up to the URL address bar (firefox) & type it.

and tap the Enter key on the keyboard. Google will be brought up with the latest news on "Indian Superbug". There's plenty of concern about it around the world. It piggybacks on viruses.

[pitohui]

13. it piggybacks on viruses and does what?

people are always "concerned" when it puts $ in their pocket to do so

how many bacteria are piggybacking on your g-i tract right now? you don't know and don't care because it doesn't matter, frankly

again, i'm saying give me evidence -- go to google and discover that people are "concerned" is not evidence of anything but astro-turf

i can go to "google" and find more "concerned" people worried abt obama's birth cert and we all know that's bullshit

there is a financial motive here to discourage people from going to the very gifted doctors in india, is all i'm saying

[Joanne98]

16. "cosmetic surgery" you mean the rich and vain are going to get face eating bacteria?

That can't be cured?

LOL

[Lance_Boyle]

21. Mostly the not-so-rich vain.

The rich vain use Hollywood plastic surgeons. Those vain people who simply want to APPEAR rich often opt for medical tourism.

[pipoman]

17. WHO =

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

19. Guess we'd all better go bathe in the river Ganges

since we don't have our own sacred river here to protect us...