Ministry of Health says NDM-1 is not an important problem since there is no proper clinical evidence

Very recently the popular Medical Journal - LANCET published an Article ‘Dissemination of NDM-1 Positive bacteria in the New Delhi environment and its implications for human health: an environmental point prevalence’ on 6.04.2011. Click here to access the article online.

In Response that article the official statement by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, is as follows:

• The environmental presence of NDM-1 gene carrying bacteria is not a significant finding because there is no clinical or epidemiological linkage of this finding in the study area as given in the publication. The fact that patients respond well to medical and postsurgical antibiotic treatment indicates that NDM-1 is not a significant problem in the country.
• Infact in the same area the study carried out by Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi shows that Escherichia coli isolated from the gut of a large randomly selected sample of pregnant women did not show any carbapenem resistant Esch.coli in the stool samples indicating no presence of NDM1.
• The carbapenem antibiotic is not required to be used in the treatment of Cholera & shigella dysentery as these cases respond to commonly used antibiotics.
• The publication itself mentions that NDM 1 gene is not a stable character in most of the isolates indicating that any time it can revert back to a sensitive state.
• Carbapenem resistance develops mainly in patients who are on carbapenem therapy. However Carbapenem is sparingly used under the supervision of doctor.
• The chlorination carried out for making water safe for drinking inactivates sensitive & drug resistant bacteria alike.
• Drug resistance surveillance is an ongoing activity in all major hospitals providing sentinel data.

Finally, the study is unsupported by any clinical and epidemiological evidence and also does not highlight the unstable character of the isolates.