LONDON: A deadly superbug was found in about a quarter of water samples taken from drinking supplies and puddles on the streets of New Delhi, according to a new study.
Experts say it’s the latest proof that the new drug-resistant bacteria, known as NDM-1, named for New Delhi, is widely circulating in the environment — and could potentially spread to the rest of the world.
The superbug can only be treated with a couple of highly toxic and expensive antibiotics. Since it was first identified in 2008, it has popped up in a number of countries, including the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada and Sweden.
Most of those infections were in people who had recently traveled to or had medical procedures in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh.
‘‘This is not a problem that is looming in the future, there are people dying today from infections that can’t be treated,’’ said David Heymann, chairman of Britain’s Health Protection Agency. He was not linked to the research.
Last fall, British scientists analyzed more than 200 water samples from central New Delhi, including public tap water and water that collected in the streets. They found the superbug gene in two of the drinking water samples and 51 of the street samples. Researchers found the superbug in 11 different types of bacteria, including those that cause dysentery and cholera.
As a comparison, the scientists also took 70 water samples from a water treatment center in Cardiff, Britain. No superbug genes were found in any of those. The research was paid for by the European Union and was published online Thursday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Mark Toleman, a senior research fellow at Cardiff University and one of the study authors, said the superbug was being spread through New Delhi’s water supply, but that experts didn’t know how many people were being sickened by it. He guessed about 500,000 people in New Delhi are now carrying the superbug gene naturally in their gut bacteria.
Indian health ministry spokeswoman S. Sharan said officials hadn’t seen the Lancet study and couldn’t comment on it.
Since the superbug was found in the UK last year, British officials say there have been about 70 cases of it in the UK including a small hospital cluster.
‘‘We have a vested interest in sorting out sanitation problems in India,’’ Toleman said, adding the West should invest more money in clean water projects in Asia. ‘‘Otherwise (superbugs) could filter out from Asia and will spread through the world.’’
Other experts weren’t sure how prevalent the NDM-1 superbug would become but were preparing for the worst.
‘‘It’s like asking in the 1980s if a few HIV cases should be a big worry,’’ said Guenael Rodier, director of communicable diseases at the World Health Organization’s office in Copenhagen. ‘‘The fact that (NDM-1) has emerged is worrisome, but forecasting what it will do is very difficult.’’
He explained that was because resistant strains sometimes mysteriously disappear.
In an accompanying commentary, microbiologist Mohd Shahid of India’s Aligarh Muslim University wrote that more studies are needed in India to assess how threatening the superbug problem is.
‘‘The potential for wider international spread is real and should not be ignored,’’ he wrote.
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