Hospital Wanderer

People in scrubs uniforms are alert nowadays because of the widespread news regarding NDM-1 or commonly known as the new "superbug".



NDM-1 bacteria is a newly-identified superbug that is spreading globally. The NDM-1 stands for “New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase” or New Delhi-Metallo-1 (NDM-1) named after the capital city of India, where it was first identified.NDM-1 gene has been found inside the E. Coli bacteria and Klebsiella pneumonia. This superbug is antibiotic-resistant and has the potential to become more devastating than the H1N1 Pandemic because it makes bacteria extremely resistant to almost all antibiotics, including the most potent class called carbapenems, the kind of drug that is reserved for emergency use and treat infections caused by other multi-resistant bugs like MRSA and C-Difficile. However there are still two drugs that can stand up to carbapenem-resistant infections. These are colistin, an older antibiotic that has some toxic side effects, and Pfizer's Tygacil.




What caused NDM-1?


This superbug is said to be caused by the medical tourism especially those who have undergone cosmetic surgeries and international travel especially those who received recent medical care in India. And since this bacteria was spread by travel it has the possibility to spread very quickly not just in India, Pakistan and UK but even around the world.



What are its effects/symptoms?


The NDM-1 enzyme can lead to pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and blood infections. Health officials have revealed that the NDM-1 Bacteria can spread in person-to-person contact. E. Coli symptoms are diarrhea,abdominal cramps,nausea, and fatigue while Klebsiella pneumonia's symptoms are fever, chills, cough, dizziness, wheezing and urinary tract infection (UTI)



Who have high risk of being infected?


Those people who have recently been to India or Pakistan, those who have been in contact with someone who has recently traveled to India or Pakistan and those who have weakened immune systems.



What must be done?


The most effective way to get rid of this superbug is to make new kind of antibiotics that could cure NHM-1 infected patients however most drug companies have little interest in developing new antibiotics because they are not as profitable as other drugs, they are only taken for a few days, unlike drugs for high blood pressure, pain or cholesterol which are taken for long periods.So as for now we will settle for the answer that this superbug is not that curable by ordinary antibiotics. What we could only do is to prevent infection by avoiding those people who have high risk of being infected. Let's just settle for this however by any case that this bacteria will be widespread this could be another problem for the society, government, hospitals and the world itself.

This may not be a news anymore because this happened last September 2009 but this is worth noting for. There is a program called Balance Menus which is a voluntary program that seeks to improve nutrition and benefit the environment by reducing meat purchasing among participating hospitals by 20 percent within 12 months. The program also promotes shifting towards serving more sustainably produced meat.

Developed and piloted by San Francisco Physicians for Social Responsibility, Balanced Menus
was first implemented in 2008 in four San Francisco Bay Area hospitals. In September 2009,
Health Care Without Harm launched the program nationally.

This program was implemented in four San Francisco Bay Area hospitals: Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, the San Francisco VA Medical Center, the John Muir Health Medical Center, and one anonymous hospital. The hospitals vary in size as well as medical and food services provided, representing a broad range of possibilities for the program.

So what is the result of this program. Did the healthcare personnel,patients,doctors and nurses in medical uniforms grew thinner and unhealthier at the span of this program. Definitely not.

The Balanced Menus program implementation in these four hospitals exceeded the 20 percent meat reduction goal, and yielded substantial savings in costs and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as, potentially,some improvements in health for those eating reduced quantities of meat. The program’s expansion provides an important opportunity to further advance these goals. With a larger sample of hospitals and a longer time-span, future program evaluation work can gain an even clearer perspective on the program’s impacts.

This is actually a great news! If only all hospitals would do this, then even patients will be healthier and doctors too!