Medical Tourism Linked to Spread of Drug Resistant Bacteria NDM-1 – People who travel from the UK to India or Pakistan may be bringing back a dangerous bacteria to the West, which is resistant to almost all antibiotics.
According to a study by Cardiff University, doctors have been seeing a specific strain of bacteria in an increasing number of patients, and treating it is becoming a major problem.
It is usually contracted from the initial spread that is passing through some countries in the East, due to British patients going abroad for faster, affordable medical or surgical procedures, including cosmetic surgery.
There are only two drugs that have been shown to work against it, but one is a 50-year-old drug that has been known to cause kidney damage, and both are at risk of quickly falling under the resisted category if the bacteria keeps spreading.
According to Tim Walsh of Cardiff University, who led the study, it could become an issue on a global problem quite quickly. They have been watching the bacteria pass from person to person since 2008, and in that time the number of people in India who have it have increased dramatically.
The enzyme has been dubbed NDM-1.