New Delhi:
India has rejected a controversial study linking a new superbug in UK to surgeries in the country.
(Read: Government's clarification)The bug NDM-1 or New Delhi Metallo-1, said to be resistant to the most powerful antibiotics, has even been named after New Delhi.
(Read: Why superbug NDM1 is considered hard-core)India says it's an attempt to target the flourishing medical tourism industry, which is making rapid progress providing treatment and surgeries to global patients at significantly lower costs. The sector has been estimated at Rs 1,200 crore.
"This phenomena is not India centric, the superbug is everywhere. It is wrong to blame India, its hospitals, and our drug policy. Indian hospitals are world class. This gives a very wrong message. We will register protest," said V M Katoch, Secretary of Health Research.
According to a paper published in scientific journal 'Lancet', the new Superbug has entered UK hospitals and is travelling with patients who had gone to countries like India and Pakistan for surgical treatments.
The health ministry said the conclusions of the article are loaded with inference that these resistance genes or organisms possibly originated in India and it may not be safe for patients in the United Kingdom to opt for surgery in India.
It said the contents of the article present a "frightening picture" which is not supported by any scientific data.
Questions are also being raised about why the research was sponsored by two big pharma companies who may gain from the findings.
"When India is emerging as a medical tourism destination, this type of news is unfortunate and may be a sinister design of multinational companies to defame the Indian medical sector," BJP leader S S Ahluwalia said in the Rajya Sabha.
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Read: MNCs may be behind superbug 'propaganda', say MPs)
The superbug gene, which can be swapped between different bacteria to make them resistant to most drugs, has so far been identified in 37 people who returned to the UK after undergoing surgery in India or Pakistan.
The threat is being seen as a serious global public health problem as there are few suitable new antibiotics in development and none that are effective against NDM-1. The Department of Health in Britain has already put out an alert on the issue.
(With PTI inputs)