The war against disease-causing pathogens is a never-ending one. Even as one battle is won, another looms large as new threats emerge. Humans and all living beings are constantly battling germs. The latest threat, feared as being more dreaded than most in recent years, has come from a new resilient gene found in bacteria that makes them resistant to almost all known antibiotics. Hence the nomenclature “superbug”. The most worrisome aspect of this gene, controversially named by its British discoverers as “New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase - 1” or NDM-1, is that it is unaffected by even the most potent class of antibiotics called carbapenems, normally used in the intensive care units of hospitals, or in the case of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, to ward off post-surgical and other infections. Equally dreadful is the fear that this superbug will render even common ailments like dysentery and cholera incapable of being treated with available drugs. Thus, potentially, this gene could deprive the world of a miraculous cure called antibiotics.
Although the “superbug” is known to have already spread around the globe, scientists at Britain’s Cardiff University School of Medicine have given the development a new, albeit contentious, twist by naming it after the Indian capital in their paper published in a professional journal, The Lancet. Worse, the authors also allege – again rather controversially – that water in New Delhi and elsewhere in India is contaminated with NDM-1 and a large number of Indians, and even some foreigners who have visited India recently, are carrying this superbug in the guts of their stomachs. These assertions, as would be expected, have been contested by the Indian government and medical research bodies, holding that these are not backed by adequate peer-reviewed scientific data.
A sizeable section of the local medical fraternity has imputed ulterior motives for singling out India, alleging that western business interests are behind the so-called “canard”. The Indian health care industry’s worry about the adverse impact that the NDM-1 scare can have on a sunrise business sector like medical tourism, which has grown in the past few years to be a multi-million dollar business, is understandable. Equally, there could be business interests in the pharmaceutical industry around the globe also interested in the business spin-off from a new health care scare. If the superbug phenomenon is real and existing antibiotics are seen as a waste, new investment would flow into finding new molecules. This would revive the beleaguered medical research industry and keep it going for years. Only a handful of drug companies have the capability and resources to do that in a short time.
Against this background, the Indian strategy of denial and argument is unlikely to bear any fruit. Charges of motivated disinformation campaign coming from the icons of the health care industry cannot get India very far. There is no substitute for a professional response, for proper research and enquiry into facts and for effective steps being taken to stop the spread of NDM-1. The indiscriminate use of antibiotics by general practitioners and hospitals must be stopped. Resistance to antibiotics may well be the result of such indiscriminate use.