Japan to hold nationwide survey of infections with superbug

Japan has confirmed its first case of drug-resistant superbug in a patient treated in India.

Japan,which has confirmed its first case of drug-resistant superbug in a patient treated in India,will conduct a nationwide survey of how far the bacteria has spread across the country,the government has announced.

Health Minister Akira Nagatsuma said the government will begin possibly later this week a survey of how far the new type of antibiotics-resistant bacteria has spread across Japan.

The government “would like to gather more information on the nationwide situation relating to multidrug-resistant bacteria,” Nagatsuma said yesterday.

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The government also intends to enhance reporting requirements concerning bacteria,leading the multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter to be added to the current list of five types of multidrug-resistant bacteria whose detection must be reported to the government,he was quoted as saying by Kyodo news agency.

Nagatsuma’s statement came after Dokkyo Medical University Hospital announced on Monday that it found a new variant of superbug carrying the NDM-1 gene,which makes bacteria resistant to most antibiotics,in a Japanese male patient in his 50s after his return from India. The finding represented the first detection of such a superbug in Japan.

The hospital said it detected multidrug-resistant E. coli in the patient through a blood test in May last year after he was hospitalised the previous month,but was unable to identify what specific resistance gene was carried.

The hospital then confirmed that the bacteria had the NDM-1 gene,which is believed to come from India or Pakistan,through a cultivation test last month on the recommendation of the Health,Labour and Welfare Ministry.

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At a press conference,a hospital official said while an exact infection route remains unknown,it is likely the superbug was brought from India,noting that the patient received treatment at a hospital there.

The patient already recovered and left the hospital and no in-hospital infections were observed,the hospital said.

In another development on Monday,Nagatsuma’s ministry inspected Teikyo University Hospital here over the deaths of inpatients from infection with antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the hospital’s delayed reporting of the situation to authorities.