“A deadly epidemic that could have global implications is quietly sweeping India, and among its many victims are tens of thousands of newborns dying because once-miraculous cures no longer work. These infants are born with bacterial infections that are resistant to most known antibiotics, and more than 58,000 died last year as a result, a recent study found. While that is still a fraction of the nearly 800,000 newborns who die annually in India, Indian pediatricians say that the rising toll of resistant infections could soon swamp efforts to improve India’s abysmal infant death rate. Nearly a third of the world’s newborn deaths occur in India. ... ‘Five years ago, we almost never saw these kinds of infections,’ said Dr. Neelam Kler, chairwoman of the department of neonatology at New Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, one of India’s most prestigious private hospitals. ‘Now, close to 100 percent of the babies referred to us have multidrug resistant infections. It’s scary.’ These babies are part of a disquieting outbreak. A growing chorus of researchers say the evidence is now overwhelming that a significant share of the bacteria present in India--in its water, sewage, animals, soil and even its mothers--are immune to nearly all antibiotics. ... ‘India’s dreadful sanitation, uncontrolled use of antibiotics and overcrowding coupled with a complete lack of monitoring the problem has created a tsunami of antibiotic resistance that is reaching just about every country in the world,’ said Dr. Timothy R. Walsh, a professor of microbiology at Cardiff University. Indeed, researchers have already found ‘superbugs’ carrying a genetic code first identified in India--NDM1 (or New Delhi metallo-beta lactamase 1)--around the world, including in France, Japan, Oman and the United States.” “Superbugs Kill India’s Babies,” New York Times, Dec. 3, 2014 Comments are closed.
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