The Health Service was put on red alert yesterday after nearly 400 cases of infection by deadly superbugs were identified in hospitals.
At least five deaths have been linked to the strains of bacteria that are resistant to even the most powerful antibiotics.
Some of the infected patients were health tourists who imported the bacteria after surgery in India and Pakistan.
The Health Protection Agency today issued new guidance to infection control specialists and microbiologists about tackling infections resistant to carbapenem antibiotics – widely regarded as all but the last line of defence against bacteria already resistant to standard drugs.
Latest figures from the HPA show 383 cases of infections caused by resistant strains of the bacteria Klebsiella and E.Coli between 2003 and the end of 2010.
These cases include hospital pneumonias, urinary infections or blood poisoning.
They include 80 cases of NDM-1, which is short for New Delhi metallo-beta-
lactamose, after the place where it was identified, of which 43 cases were reported last year.
There were claims last year that five patients had died in NHS hospitals while infected with NDM-1 following a study in The Lancet reporting that 50 Britons were infected. It is one of a number of bugs that destroy carbapenem antibiotics which have been found in the UK.
Laboratory tests for the bugs are outlined in the latest guidance, along with remaining drugs that may still work.
Dr David Livermore, director of the HPA’s antibiotic resistance monitoring and reference laboratory, said: ‘It is critical, always, to understand how much of modern medicine – from gut surgery to transplants – depends on the ability to treat infection. If that ability is lost, through resistance, then medicine will take a great step backwards.
‘The emergence of carbapenem resistance is a major public health concern and we hope this new guidance will help infection control specialists across this UK to better recognise, treat and prevent infections caused by bacteria with these resistances.
‘NDM and the other enzymes that cause carbapenem resistance can be produced by many different types of bacteria, which can affect various body sites.
‘The severity of the infections caused by bacteria with resistance to carbapenems varies. It depends on several factors including a patient’s general health, and the site of the infection.
‘The spread of antibiotic resistance underscores the need for good infection control in hospitals both in the UK and overseas, and highlights the need for new antibiotics to be developed.’
NDM-1 is an enzyme that alters bacteria, making them resistant to nearly all antibiotics, and has largely been found only in E.coli bacteria so far.
However, experts are alarmed by its potential ability to transfer into superbugs already among us, such as MRSA and C.diff, which would make the resulting infection more dangerous.
Derek Butler, chairman of the pressure group MRSA Action, which raises awareness of all hospital infections, said health chiefs must extend the monitoring and recording of all bacteria and extend screening into the community, especially care homes.
The decision to eventually axe the HPA as part of the bonfire of the quangos was a ‘clear mistake’, he said.
Advice was issued by the HPA last year to healthcare professionals on the need to be ‘extra vigilant’ when dealing with infections caused by carbapenem resistant bugs among patients who have travelled to or been hospitalised overseas, particularly the Indian sub-continent.
By Jenny Hope
Daily Mail