Bacterial Superpowers

The emergence of the New Delhi Metallo-Beta Lactamase (NDM-1) gene in bacteria commonly associated with nosocomial, or hospital-borne, infections this past summer has sparked the latest fears of a “superbug” waging war in hospitals around the world. It may sound like talking about nosocomial infections tends to the hyperbole, with an abundance of unnecessary war-associated terminology. Indeed, there does seem to be an “arms race” of sorts in that the weapons that we have long used again microbes, typically antibiotics and antivirals, are becoming less effective in the face of evolving microbial antibiotic resistance. Penicillin was deemed the “magic bullet” upon its introduction in medicine in XXX; unfortunately, we are rapidly running out of such panacea. NDM-1 is just the latest antibiotic-resistance gene and seems poised to do the most damage to our already beleaguered arsenal of antibiotics.