After creating a huge controversy by claiming that foreign
patients who were treated in India developed antibiotic
resistance, authors of the superbug New Delhi metallo-B-
lactamase-1 (NDM-1) bacteria study published in the United
Kingdom-based medical journal The Lancet now say that poor
sanitation and unregulated antibiotic use presented an immense
challenge and should be of great concern to the Indian health
authorities and the World Health Organisation. Responding to
queries in the latest edition of the journal, the authors of the
controversial study (Emergence of a new antibiotic resistance
mechanism in India, Pakistan, and the UK: a molecular,
biological and epidemiological study) quoted a UN report saying
that 650 million people in India did not have adequate
sanitation, and the sewage treatment system in Delhi struggled
to cater to 50 per cent of the population. “Such facts, coupled
with India's heavy and unregulated antibiotic use, doubtlessly
explain why seven of eight returning Swedish tourists expe