Virus resistant to antibiotics spread by ‘health tourists’

PEOPLE travelling to countries like Pakistan and India are bringing back with them a new superbug that is resistant to almost all antibiotics.

The gene, called New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM-1), spread originally in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, but has now been found in 37 British patients who travelled to those countries for medical procedures such as cosmetic surgery.

The team of British and international researchers who discovered the new gene, found that in some cases, it allowed bacteria to be highly resistant to almost all antibiotics.