India calls Britain’s super bluff on superbug

NEW DELHI: The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday strongly refuted the claim that a drug-resistant superbug that can cause multiple organ failure has been traced back to India.

In the latest issue of The Lancet, scientists have warned that an enzyme, which they’ve ironically named New Delhi metallo beta lactamase, could cause havoc worldwide. The ministry pointed out that there was a conflict of interest in the publication of the report – the European Union and two pharma companies, Wellcome Trust and Wyeth, funded the study.

A national resistance alert was issued in July 2009 in UK hospitals and another alert has been sounded now. “Similar plasmids have been reported from Israel, USA, Greece and even in this report from (the) environment of Scotland. While such organisms may be circulating more commonly in the world due to international travel but to link this with the safety of surgery hospitals in India and citing isolated examples to show that due to the presence of such organisms in the Indian environment, India is not a safe place to visit is wrong,” an official release said.

The Ministry of Health also refuted reports that Indian hospitals were not safe. Sharply reacting to reports of a drug-resistant “superbug’” from India, senior BJP leader S S Ahluwalia said in the Rajya Sabha that it could be part of a “sinister design” hatched by foreign powers to destabilise India’s growing medical tourism sector.