Superbug Discovery in Delhi Drinking Water Condemned by Indian Health Officials

UK scientists have found a gene NDM-1 superbug or New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1 in drinking water supplies in New Delhi that makes bacteria highly drug-resistant. This gene was found in 2 of the 50 drinking water samples and 51 of 171 street samples taken between September and October 2010. It was first identified in 1998. Since then infections have occurred in Britain, Canada, Australia, US and Sweden. The NDM-1 is believed to have spread to 11 new species including the germs that cause dysentery and cholera. Researchers at the Cardiff University in UK studied the gene and found that the rate at which it was copied and transferred to other bacteria was highest at 30 degree centigrade. Generally this is the temperature in Delhi between April-October and includes the monsoon season which means that it poses a potential threat to disseminate resistant bacteria.

However the Indian health officials called the study ‘unsupported’. When they tested nearly 2,000 women in a New Delhi hospital they found that none of them showed signs of the NDM-1 gene. Therefore the Government officials have asserted that this discovery does not pose any public health threat. Director-general of the Indian Council of Medical Research, V.M. Katoch said, "We know that such bacteria with genes are in the atmosphere everywhere. This is a waste of time. The study is creating a scare that India is a dangerous country to visit. We are condemning it."


Source-Medindia