by S. L. Baker
Nuclear meltdowns. Oil spills. More strife in Africa and the Middle East. GMO tainted crops. So what else could happen? Unfortunately, another problem has surfaced that has scientists calling for the “urgent need for global action”. This time, it’s worrisome news about a gene that turns bacteria into not just superbugs — but SUPER superbugs.
Bottom line: this gene (dubbed the New Delhi metallo-s-lactamase 1 gene, NDM-1, for short) enables bacteria to resist virtually any and perhaps all antibiotics.
These multidrug-resistant bacteria have been found in public water supplies and urban effluent in New Delhi. But this isn’t a problem limited to India. While researchers writing in the latest issue of the journal Lancet say the findings in India pose the worrisome possibility that NDM-1 is widespread in the environment of that country, there are plenty of reasons to be concerned the bacteria could be spreading to other parts of the planet.
Mohd Shahid from Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Uttar Pradesh, India, warns in an accompanying article that the potential for the global spread of bacteria with the super dangerous NDM-1 gene “.. is real and should not be ignored…coordinated, concrete, and collective efforts are needed, initially to limit their widespread dissemination, and finally to combat this emerging threatening resistance problem.”
For the new study, Timothy Walsh from Cardiff University in the UK and his research team, in collaboration with reporters from Channel 4 television, investigated how common NDM-1-producing bacteria are in community waste seepage (water pools in streets or rivulets) and public tap water in urban New Delhi. Using a variety of sophisticated tests, including DNA probing, the researchers checked for the presence of the NDM-1 gene in bacteria found in the water samples.
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