CHENNAI: A day after the Lancet report on drug-resistant 'superbug' NDM-1 created a global scare, India has hit out at the study, which it said was funded by pharma companies that make antibiotics to treat such cases.
While the Union health ministry issued a statement on Thursday which also takes offence to the naming of the bug after the national capital, the paper's Chennai-based lead author Karthikeyan Kumarasamy dissociated himself from parts of the report.
"The study was funded by the European Union and two pharmaceutical companies, Wellcome Trust and Wyeth, which produce antibiotics for treatment of such cases. It also needs to be highlighted that several of the authors have declared conflict of interest in the publication," the health ministry said.
Doctors have criticised the report, saying it appeared to be aimed at hitting at India's booming medical tourism that was taking away business from the West.
Kumarasamy said he had not written many of the interpretations in the report; they were added later without his permission or knowledge. "I do not agree with the last paragraph which advises people to avoid elective surgeries in India. While I did the scientific work, correspondence author Timothy R Walsh of Cardiff University was assigned to edit the report," Kumarasamy told TOI.
According to the study based on a survey of patients in Indian cities, a multi-drug resistant strain of bacteria was spreading from Indian hospitals. The bug entering the blood stream through infected hospital equipment could lead to multiple organ failure, said the researchers. However, experts had alleged a bias in the findings and said such infections could originate anywhere.
Writing to the report's co-author Walsh on Thursday, Kumarasamy's guide at University of Madras Padma Krishnan said the report would "create boundaries" between scientists. "The research was taken up in the interests of patient care, but the report has projected a negative image of India," she added.
Walsh has been quoted in British media as advising people to "think long and hard" before making a decision to undergo treatment in Indian hospitals. Incidentally, the Lancet report comes close on the heels of International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery ranking India among the top five destinations for cosmetic surgery. Walsh was not reachable over the phone.
Kumarasamy said the report pained him. "It was too small a sample to extrapolate. My intention was to find out whether such multi-resistant bacteria existed in India. We see several such strains of multi-drug resistant bacteria across the world," Kumarasamy added.
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