Why is India superbugged?

The run up to this year’s Independence Day was ultra theatrical and the opportunistic actors of our nation - the ‘selfless’ politicians strained every nerve to score sloppy little political points over each other.
All the fuss was about a report that was published in ‘The Lancet Infectious Disease Journal’, a well- reputed England based medical-weekly.

The journal has named a gene after India’s national Capital- New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1 (NDM-1) and this ‘not so fortunate’ attribution has miffed few nationalist outfits in the nation who dub it as “England sponsored anti-India campaign”.

Coming back to the contents of the report it said that a particular strand of gene is responsible making bacteria resistant to antibiotics and the bacteria which are infected with this gene, now known as NDM-1, are termed as ‘superbug’ and also may result in death casualties.

The revelations though were not very shocking as bacteria’s turning medicine-resistant is a natural phenomenon and has been occurring since the inception of the first antibiotic by Alexander Fleming-Penicillin. But certainly it does call for an impromptu action from the medical fraternity of India.

But what the concluding paragraph of the report says is no less than an insult to India. It issues a warning that proposes UK nationals not to fly for India for medical treatment and avoid any cosmetic treatments in the country.

The bone of contention between Lancet and the Indian government is the final paragraph of the medical report which sounds more of a warning to UK nationals than a well documented medical report. The Indian government was quick to respond and wasted no time in refuting the claims made by the journal and stated that whatever is mentioned in the report is a deliberate effort of the multi-national pharmaceutical companies to dent India’s brand image.

It must be mentioned here that over the years India has made brisk progressive strides as far as medical treatment is concerned-quality healthcare at affordable prices has made India a leading health center around the world.

The Journal, however, base its study to an experiment they have conducted last December in several cities across India. The results of the trial displayed that 17 of the 37 patients who were found infected with the NDM-1 had undergone some kind of surgery in Indian hospitals and thus inferred that this particular gene has been originated in India.

Not going in the biology of the phenomenon, I want to put forth certain questions that the journal has dodged very convincingly and managed to defend its claim.

   1. According to the report, only 17 out of the 37 patients got the infected virus from India, which is not even 50 percent of the result and to claim that the pathogen is India-born, to me looks a little timid and funny. Also the journal completely refused to share the details of the other 20 infected patients as to how the rest get the infection? That clearly highlights the intention behind publishing such unrehearsed claims.

   2. When the HIV was discovered, why it was not named after USA-its domicile country and why India’s name being floated in a negative tune over a phenomenon that very natural?

   3. The journal had earlier come up with similar reports against US, Israel and Sweden but never went on the extent to name a deadly pathogen after them, then why India is being specifically targeted as the main threat? Is this not a part of a conspiracy against India and ‘politically motivated’ piece to hurt India’s booming medical tourism?