Bacterial resistance – NDM-1 a new cause for concern

[9 September 2010 - 10h08]
[mis à jour le 10 September 2010 à 10h08]

NDM-1: behind this code lurks a gene that promotes the development of bacteria resistant to all existing antibiotics. Discovered a few months ago in Asia, these bacteria are now believed to be spreading across the world.

Dr Timothy Walsh of the University of Cardiff was the first to identify NDM-1. This was in 2009 when it was discovered in a Swedish patient hospitalised in India. Since then he has conducted a study and identified 180 cases worldwide, mainly in Asia and Europe: 44 in Chennai (India); 26 in Haryana (India); 37 in the United Kingdom and 73 “in other sites in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan”.

“The majority of British patients who were NDM-1 positive had travelled to India or Pakistan during the year to undergo surgery”, Dr Walsh explains. In other words, these were patients who had been part of the medical tourism industry.

What happens in fact is that NDM-1 “colonises” certain bacteria making them ultra-resistant to antibiotics. Dr Walsh has discovered its presence in Escherichia coli. According to him, “NDM-1 has the potential to become a genuine global public health problem. A coordinated response at an international level is strongly desired”.

What does the World Health Organisation (WHO) think about this? Not a great deal … for the moment at least. WHO experts are currently working on this question of resistance”, we were simply told.

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