Superbug NDM-1: What you need to know, why it's so dangerous!

New Delhi: New Delhi metallo-ß-lactamase-1 or NDM-1 is the name given to an enzyme that is carried by some bacteria. This enzyme makes bacteria resistant to a broad range of antibiotics, including the strongest ones, being available in the world.

In wake of a CDC's report that claimed a woman in the US falling victim to an infection that she contracted while being treated for a thigh bone fracture in India two years ago, here are some key facts you need to know about NDM-1:

• NDM-1 was first detected in a Swedish patient of Indian origin who travelled to India in 2008, and fell ill with an antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection.
• The infection was identified as a carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strain bearing the novel gene blaNDM-1.
• NDM-1 is so dangerous because the gene causes bacteria to produce an enzyme called carbapenemase that makes nearly every antibiotic ineffective, including carbepenem. Carbepenems are the most powerful antibiotics used to fight highly resistant bacteria when other drugs have failed to work against the infections.
• By 2015, the drug resistant superbug, which is immune to almost all known antibiotics, had been detected in more than 70 countries.
• NDM-1 has been found in at least four different genera of gram-negative bacteria - Klebsiella, Escherichia, Enterobacter, and Acinetobacter. However, the gene for NDM-1 can spread from one strain of bacteria to another by horizontal gene transfer.
• The major sign and symptom that a person is infected with bacteria carrying NDM-1 is resistant to antibiotic treatments, whether IV or oral, to improve the person's condition; particularly if the patient is infected with a gram-negative bacterial type and is receiving treatment with an antibiotic that contains a beta-lactam ring structure, as per a report on emedicinehealth.
• The first reported death due to bacteria expressing the NDM-1 enzyme was first recorded in August 2010, after a Belgian man, who had become infected while being treated in a hospital in Pakistan, died despite being administered colistin.

While research is underway to find a solution to NDM-1, experts are highly concerned because it has the potential to be resistant to all existing antibiotics as well as new ones that could become available in the near future.