Poor antibiotic stewardship blamed as India found to be superbug’s birthplace

Over a decade ago, the scientific community raised the alarm over New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase-1 (NDM-1), an enzyme that confers resistance to most antibiotics on bacteria such as Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli. The gene for this enzyme, which subsequently spread around the world, was traced back to an infection in a Swedish patient treated at a New Delhi medical facility. Now, new research shows another highly drug resistant pathogen that has gone global most likely originated on the Indian subcontinent too.