August 16, 2010

Is the India Superbug a Hoax?

HEALTH - The pharmaceutical company that funded the study of the "discovery" of a superbug in India which was found in visitors to the country is now being questioned by the press and governments over whether this was all an elaborate scheme to sell antibiotics, which the company is question is one of the world's largest producers of.

"The study nowhere mentions if the bacteria were found even before those persons visited India,” says India's Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. “The study was funded by a pharma company which is one of the biggest antibiotics maker in the world.”

According to the study in question, the new superbug was found in 37 cases of patients who had travelled to India for cosmetic surgery, cancer treatment and transplants. That doesn't mean they caught the superbug when they arrived in India, but rather they simply had the superbug when the study was conducted and the origin might instead be North America since that is where many of these surgery and cancer treatment "tourists" are from.

Researchers have been warning this superbug (New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1 or NDM-1) could spread worldwide and attach itself to other diseases which are currently treated by antibiotics, creating new strains which are resistant and more deadly.

So the superbug is real, but the pharmaceutical company which funded the study hasn't been entirely honest about its origins or its research methodology. India's Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi says India will be getting to the bottom of this elaborate scheme.

“Obviously, we have to find out if there are some kind of ulterior motives or not of some pharmaceutical industries as well. I personally feel that sometimes, some things are commercially motivated.” says Dinesh Trivedi.

India is a global hub for medical care at an affordable price. Medical tourists often travel to India because they have some of the most affordable private health care available and treatment options which aren't available in their own countries.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments containing links will be marked as spam and not approved. We moderate every comment. If you want to advertise on this blog it is $30 per link.

Affordable Website Design & SEO

Looking for a quality professional website designer? Why not go where the smart money is?! Toronto Website Design and Toronto SEO. Get free SEO advice from people who really know the business.

Featured Posts

The Sarcasm Symbol
Ever had some confusion online or with your cellphone when someone fails to catch the sarcasm? Well now with the SarcMark you can ge...
Behold, the Scorpion Hydrogen Supercar
CARS - To the right is the future of supercars... it is a hydrogen supercar called the Scorpion. The Scorpion from Ronn Motors in Texas is t...
Documents show Stephen Harper misusing public funds
CANADA - According to 950+ pages of documents obtained by the Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act the Privy Coun...
Pink's Rosie the Riveter
ENTERTAINMENT - What I like about this video is how it meshes different social movements like feminism, veganism, anti-capitalism...
California's Dustbowl
ENVIRONMENT - The photo on the right is a farm in California that has been put up for sale. Its just one of thousands of farms that are n...
Is Steampunk the New Goth???
GOTHIC - Watch out what you see on the subway late at night because while in 2001 you might have seen some pretty freakish goths, by 20...
Do you have enough Ice Water in your diet?
HEALTH - A Calorie (large C) is a measurement of the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of a litre of water (1 kg's worth) ...
North Korean timeline towards Inevitable War
POLITICS - The following is timeline of events that have occurred on the Korean Peninsula. 1945 - Japan surrenders to the United States a...
Judgment Day is Tomorrow, so sayeth Cult
RELIGION - According to a cult based in California, Judgement Day is tomorrow (May 21st 2011) and Jesus Christ will return to the Earth a...
Sex in Space Forbidden
SEX/TECHNOLOGY - Sex in outer space is a big no-no according to NASA. Not for professional astronauts at least, but the growing numb...

Popular Posts / Last 30 Days