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India objects to ‘smuggling’ superbug samples out to UK

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timesofindia

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday seriously objected to biological samples in the form of “swabs of seepage water and tap water” being carried out of the country “on the sly” by British scientists to test the presence of the multi-drug resistant superbug.

India said it was a signatory to World Health Organization’s International Materiel Transfer Agreement as per which permission is required to carry out any biological material from the country.

“The way scientists carried out samples from India to be tested in UK does not point to a good scientific motive. It is illegal,” said Dr V M Katoch, director general of Indian Council for Medical Research. “Some people want to keep the heat on India,” he added.

According to him, such multi-drug resistant bacteria — like what is being called a superbug caused by the NDM1 gene — exists in environment across the world. “To keep on pressing India as a hotbed of such superbugs is unfair, and its motive is questionable,” Dr Katoch added.

The scientists had collected 171 swabs of seepage water and 50 public tap water samples from sites within a 12-km radius of central New Delhi between September and October 2010.

The scientists clarified, “seepage water and tap water samples are not listed in the Directorate General of Foreign Trade Notification number 27/2007 issued by the government of India, ministry of commerce and industry, department of commerce, and therefore no permit is required for export. As a control group, we took sewage effluent samples from the Cardiff Wastewater Treatment Works, Tremorfa, Wales.”

A study published in British medical journal, “Lancet”, on Thursday reported that the NDM 1 gene, which makes bacteria resistant to all known forms of antibiotics, including the most powerful ones like carbapenems, were found in open water pools, water from overflowing sewage and even a couple of drinking water samples.

According to the study, water samples collected around the Gangaram Hospital area was found to be positive with NDM1 gene.

Countering this charge, director general of health services, Dr R K Srivastava, said, a study of 1,944 pregnant women over the past two years “did not show any carbapenem-resistant esch coli infection in stool samples, indicating no presence of NDM1. All the women were sensitive to all forms of antibiotics.”

The ministry said, “The environmental presence of NDM-1 gene, carrying bacteria, is not a significant finding, since there is no clinical or epidemiological linkage of this finding in the study area. The fact that patients respond well to medical and post-surgical antibiotic treatment indicates that NDM1 is not a significant problem in the country. Also the carbapenem antibiotic is not required to be used in the treatment of cholera and shigella dysentery as these cases can be treated with commonly used antibiotics.”

The scientists had said in the study that the most worrying factor was that the NDM1 gene had already spread to the bacteria, which causes cholera and dysentery in India.

“The publication itself mentions that NDM1 gene is not a stable character in most of the isolates indicating that any time it can revert back to a sensitive state. Carbapenem resistance develops mainly in patients who are on carbapenem therapy. However, Carbapenem is sparingly used under the supervision of a doctor,” the ministry said.



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