New study: Tourists are spreading antibiotic resistant super bugs

Enterobacteriaceae: large family of Gram-negative bacteria that includes many of the more familiar pathogens, such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli.

Tourism in parts of South Asia and the Middle East is contributing to the spread of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, a new study has found.

People who have travelled to these areas, or even living with someone who has, have an increased chance of carrying resistant gut bacteria called ESBL which produces Enterobacteriaceae.

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The study, published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, found that of the 7.3 per cent of those tested in the UK, those with the highest prevalence had travelled to South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh).

E.coli and Klebsiella, which everyone carries harmlessly with no symptoms, can sometimes get into the wrong part of the body and cause wounds, urinary tract infections, lung and bloodstream infections which can be deadly.

As these bacteria become more resistant to certain antibiotics, doctors are being forced to turn to other drugs and these superbugs can remain in their gut for six months to a year.

“The findings show the problem of antibiotic resistance is global and that bugs bred in one country quickly spread to another due to global travel,” Professor Peter Hawkey, a microbiologist at the University of Birmingham told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

The resistance has been caused by overuse and misuse of antibiotics, a problem which has become much more pronounced across many parts of Asia where you can buy antibiotics over the counter with no prescription or diagnosis for use on humans and livestock.

“Poor sanitation and antibiotic control in one country affects another. We’re all interconnected, we’re all travelling more.”

“The people that are more likely to travel to parts of the world where these bacteria are common are the ones more likely to be carrying them,” Hawkey told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

“The results show the perfect storm that is gram negative antibiotic resistance. It’s a quiet storm, it’s not a dramatic outbreak, but it could have dramatic effects .”

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Latest comments

Corolla Sedan says:
March 7, 2018 at 3:27 pm
I find this antibiotic resistance hilarious.We rise our food on antibiotic,crops and animals fish prawns included.When we eat this food we overload our body with antibiotic,then we get sick from antibiotic,oh you need to take more antibiotic,then we get cancer,oh you need chemotherapy,which does not cure anything,you lucky if it does not kill you on first place.You are declared cancer free,then few years later cancer is back.NO NO NO cancer never left us,does not matter how healthy you are.Cancer is with all of us,in every breath we take we inhale cancer.Cancer is in father sperm and mother ovaries,then little mushroom is born full of cancer.Cancer is fungus and it is seed of life could not be cured operated or destroyed.It is in every cell of our body in waiting to be enriched with fungal foods we eat or fungal environment we live or work.Once enriched then we get all these fancy diagnostic names diseases which could be summed up in one word CANDIDA.Sugar did I say candida,quick delete my comment or whole world would lose their job,and doctors will be sweeping streets for crust.You want comment I give you comment lets see how brave are you Shlomo to publish it.
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south asia super bug tourism