Three Americans hit by superbug after India treatment

A month after a Belgian became the first casualty of an antibiotic-resistant superbug originating in South Asia, it has come to light that three Americans from California, Massachusetts and Illinois returned to the US from India infected by the virus. The superbug — found in bacteria containing the New Delhi metallo-lactamase-1 (NDM-1) gene — was first identified last year in a Swedish patient admitted to a hospital in India.

The Californian woman needed hospital care after being involved in a car accident in India. The Illinois man had pre-existing medical problems and a urinary catheter, while a woman from Massachusetts had surgery and chemotherapy for cancer in India before travelling to the US. “We want physicians to look for it, especially in patients who have travelled recently to India or Pakistan,” Brandi Limbago, a lab chief at the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said on Monday.

American doctors slammed India for overusing antibiotics, saying it had created a situation where the drug-resistant superbug could easily spread hard-to-treat infections around the globe with people travelling to India. The superbug scare has focused global attention on how antibiotics are sold across-the-counter in India to customers, at times even without prescriptions.

Karen Bush, an Indiana University professor and an expert on resistance in bacteria, said the three US cases involved three different bacteria that fortunately remain susceptible to the antibiotics colistin, polymixin and tigecycline. According to experts, the superbug can have severe consequences for cancer patients and others with compromised immune systems.

The cases in the US and two others in Canada involve people who received medical care in India. The superbug is a PR nightmare for India’s expanding health tourism industry. The Indian health ministry insists such bacteria are present universally and have protested against the superbug being named NDM-1.
Nearly 150,000 Americans travelled overseas last year for medical care to save on costs. Cases of the superbug have now been reported in Australia, the UK, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden and the US.