How to Identify and Help Prevent NDM-1

First identified in a published report in 2009, NDM-1 (or New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase-1) is actually an enzyme that attaches itself to a wide variety of bacteria, and renders that bacteria strongly resistant to the most potent broad-spectrum antibiotics, known as carbapenems.

Among the first known patients affected by NDM-1 was a patient being treated for a urinary tract infection in a Swedish hospital who had previously been treated in a hospital in New Delhi, India, where the enzyme is thought to have originated.1 Since then, occurrences of NDM-1 have been found on all continents.

So, while NDM-1 does not carry its own health risks and symptoms, in conjunction with certain bacteria, it can make medical treatment much more difficult.

The main sign of a person infected with bacteria carrying NDM-1 is the failure of antibiotics to affect the patient’s condition. Because NDM-1 can be carried by a wide variety of gram-negative bacteria, it is difficult to assign other specific symptoms to it. Gram-negative bacteria can cause conditions from cholera to pneumonia and other respiratory infections. Another major factor in diagnosing people infected with bacteria carrying NDM-1 is a history of travel to India, particularly for “medical tourism.”

The NDM-1 resistance gene is most frequently found in these conditions:

If you have a gram-negative bacterial infection that is not being effectively treated by antibiotics, consult with your doctor, particularly if you have recently travelled to India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh