NDM-1 — A Cause for Worldwide Concern

The most recent reports of superbugs in the professional and lay literature discuss NDM-1, which stands for New Delhi metallobeta-lactamase 1 and refers not to a single bacterial species but to a transmissible genetic element encoding multiple resistance genes that was initially isolated from a strain of klebsiella obtained from a patient who acquired the organism in New Delhi, India This article discusses possible factors for dissemination of NDM-1 and resistance in general such as multiresistant klebsiella containing so-called KPC enzymes and how bacteria continue to thwart best efforts to contain them and destroy them with antibiotics