French expert refutes UAE superbug claim

DUBAI — Refuting the claims of local experts who dismissed the chances of superbug cases in the UAE, an international expert has said that cases of the new bacteria are likely to be identified in the UAE after a recent discovery of two similar cases in Oman.

Asma Ali Zain

Published: Sat 18 Sep 2010, 9:24 AM

Last updated: Mon 6 Apr 2015, 4:42 PM

Both cases discovered in Oman had a travel history to India where the NDM-1(New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase 1) is believed to have originated, Professor Patrice Nordmann of France’s Bicetre Hospital told Khaleej Times in an e-mail interview. Responding to an article published on Thursday, he said since two cases have emerged in Oman, it is likely that similar cases maybe identified in the UAE as well. The head of the Department of Bacteriology-Virology and head of the research unit “Emerging Resistance to Antibiotics” also offered molecular diagnostic help in detecting suspected cases in the UAE. The Oman cases were also highlighted by the expert during the 50^th annual meeting of the Inter-Science Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) held in Boston from September 12-14.

“I prefer not to give clinical details of the infected cases since they will be submitted for publication soon,” he said.

Scientists at the ICAAC called for an international surveillance system over the coming months to test all the patients admitted to any given health system. “For the moment, we don’t know how fast this phenomenon is spreading… It may take months or years, but what is certain is that it will spread,” Prof Nordmann asserted. The bug attracted media attention after the August publication of a research article in Britain’s Lancet journal that said an Indian ‘medical tourist’ appeared to have brought the bacteria to Britain.

The head of UAE’s Infection Control Committee welcomed the expert’s help. “We are going to alert the local molecular laboratory to the particular issue,” he said.

NDM-1 is a gene that produces an enzyme that can deactivate all antibiotics. Since the bug was detected in Britain in 2007, the number of infected people began to increase reaching more than 70 in Britain and more than 170 in India and Pakistan.

Local hospitals already have in place a surveillance system but despite that, a central Infection Control Programme set up under the Dubai Health Authority and implemented in Dubai’s main hospitals has been seeing a constant increase in the number and percentage of infections over the past three years.

· asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com