NDM-1 (New Delhi Metallo-1) is the hard talk now in the global medicine industry. NDM-1 is a new MBL (metallo beta lactamase, enzyme that can help bacteria from being killed by beta lactum antibiotics like penicillin) which has been reported from India (ANTIMICROBIAL AGENTS AND CHEMOTHERAPY, Dec. 2009, p. 5046–5054). This new trait doesn’t show a lot of similarity with the already known MBLs. Some quote this as “super bug”, next to MRSA (Methicilin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus); am not convinced with terming it as a superbug rather it might infact make a bacteria, a super bug which will be resistant to ‘most’antibiotics’, as the media says. Am sceptical too about the phrase “most antibiotics” as what includes the ‘most’? The article which reported the NDM-1 containing plasmids in two different organisms ( Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli ) present data for their susseptibility to fluoroquinolones and colistin. Chromosomally encoded MBL was first reported in 1991 in Japan
Philosophy under the microscope!