Health experts have declared victory over Swine Flu, just in time for the arrival of a new kid on the block. Meet NDM-1 – the antibiotic-resistant bacteria heading your way.
By Robert Carry
We somehow managed to survive Sars, Bird Flu, Foot and Mouth and BSE but Swine Flu, the first to actually infect people we knew, looked like it could have been the one to finally wipe out the human race.
Happily, after months of wearing ridiculous face-masks and threatening physical violence on anyone who sneezed within a 50-metre radius of us, The World Health Organisation has this week declared the swine flu pandemic officially over.
WHO director general Margaret Chan said the organisation’s emergency committee of flu experts advised her that the dreaded H1N1 had “largely run its course”.
The move has widely been seen as a chest-thumping declaration of victory over the nasty little microbe. In fact, many believe that the WHO and it’s pals in the pharmaceutical industry might have elevated the threat level beyond the actual risk posed as a means of obliging national governments to buy anti-flu vaccines by the shed load.
But while pharmaceutical companies might have done cartwheels about Swine Flu, they have an altogether more significant threat on their hands with the latest bug. NDM-1 you see, is proving resistant to even our most powerful antibiotics. Oh dear.
In an almost biblical-style lesson against vanity, this new bacterial strain has arrived in European hospitals after piggy-backing on patients returning from cosmetic surgery trips to countries such as India and Pakistan.
Cupboard
It is now firmly entrenched in UK hospitals were staff have thrown every antibiotic in the medicine cupboard at it – to no avail. So far some 50 cases identified in the UK alone although similar bugs have been seen in the US, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands.
Mother Nature has developed the NDM-1 bacterial trait in such a way that it is showing up in a number of different types of bacteria, such as E.coli. Doctors have traditionally held carbapenems, our most powerful antibiotics, in reserve for use in severe cases and only when all other types of antibiotic have failed. Against NDM-1 however, even the A-bomb in our arsenal, is proving useless.
The fear is that NDM-1 could become evident in types of bacteria that can spread easily from person-to-person. If this happens, and the bacteria demonstrates the already-common immunity to other types of antibiotics, then we will have the perfect storm – a lethal, fast-spreading infection that is impossible to treat.
In fact, NDM-1 has already demonstrated its ability to move from patient to patient in UK hospitals.
So what do we do? Is it finally time to move to the North Pole? Well, researchers say the best way to combat the bacteria is to isolate any hospital patients who are infected.
Further, most NDM-1 bacteria have proved to be treatable when a combination of different antibiotics are deployed. That said, it appears to be only a matter of time before these two are circumvented by the clever little bugs.
Once that happens, infection control measures like disinfecting hospital equipment and staff with antibacterial soap, will be the thin white line between us and catastrophe. Either that or we’re about to be scammed again by the pharmaceutical giants.
