The union health ministry has rebuffed the claim made by the British medical journal Lancet that travelling to India for treatment, including medical tourism, is unsafe because they believe that resistance genes/organism which the journal named as New Delhi metallo beta lactamase (NDM-1) possibly is originated in India.
In a statement, the ministry said that the the medical Journal's claim is not supported by any scientific data and thus tarnishes the reputation of the country. It also clearly specifies that India strongly disagrees with the naming of this enzyme as New Delhi metallo beta lactamase. This decision was taken by the Director General Health Services (DGHS), in consultation with Secretary, Department of Health Research (DHR) and Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (DG ICMR).
In a report published about emergence of a new antibiotic resistance mechanism in India, Pakistan, and the UK on 11th August 2010, Karthikeyan K Kumaraswamy, interpreted that new antibiotic resistance mechanism spread possibly from India. It reports, “The presence of a plasmid associated with drug resistance to several antibiotics including third generation cephalosporins in gram-negative bacteria. While the title and the contents broadly describe the antibiotics resistance profile of gram negative bacteria and its mechanism due to New Delhi metallo-b lactamase (NDM-1) gene in the plasmid, the conclusions are loaded with inference that these resistance genes/organism possibly originated in India and it may not be safe for the UK patients to opt for surgery in India.”
The official statement issued by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare clearly points out that, over the decades, it is known that plasmids are present in gram negative bacteria, they can be transmitted among bacteria and they may also encode for resistance for many drugs. However, this is a phenomenon which occurs in nature, in the environment, may be intestines of humans and animals universally. Their might be billions of such happenings at any moment.
The statement points out, “The report should have highlighted that getting infection by such drug resistant bacteria is a matter of chance, is a global phenomenon and is preventable by sound infection prevention strategies which are followed in any good hospital.”
A national resistance alert was issued in July 2009 in UK hospitals, and similar alert has been sounded now also. It may be noted that similar plasmids have been reported from Israel, USA, Greece and even in this report from environment of Scotland.
The statement says, “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 presence of such organism in Indian environment, India is not a safe place to visit is wrong.” The statement also mentions that several of the authors have declared conflict of interest in the publication.
The study was funded by European Union and two pharma companies namely Wellcome Trust and Wyeth who produce antibiotics for treatment of such cases.