The Superbug has reached Malaysia!

Go read today's (27th October 2010) news here.

The superbug which was first identified in India and Pakistan a couple of months ago has finally reached Malaysia.

A superbug which is resistant to antibiotics has been detected in a 24-year-old woman, the first known case in Malaysia, said Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.

The superbug is scientifically known as NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo-lactamase-1). Thankfully, she has recovered after receiving treatment at Ampang Hospital for the past one month.

Excuse me, did I read past ONE MONTH? Yesshh. Looks like the government is hiding this news from us for the past one month. That means she had contracted the superbug one month ago. Did she spread it to anyone else then? Maybe more news are not revealed to us. The news mentioned that she had not travelled overseas. So, she contracted the superbug right here in Malaysia. Okayyy, that's scary.

I wonder then if the superbug is resistant to antibiotics, how did she recover? It was not mentioned in the news what medicine she was prescribed.

I was quite relieved to read that the superbug was only transmitted through direct contact like touching and through wounds, not through the air.

The world's first fatality of the Superbug was a Belgian who got infected in Pakistan after he was hospitalised for a leg injury suffered in a car accident.

The penicillin was only invented in the 1940s which was a great invention to humankind. But after 60 years or so, bacteria have managed to grow resistance towards antibiotics. We are going back to square one.

A bacterium which is resistant to antibiotics is something very scary, just like the MDR-TB and the XDR-TB. The XDR-TB is said to be virtually incurable. It's like being infected with HIV, which is incurable. But there are reports claiming that there are XDR-TB patients who managed to recover, with a recovery rate of roughly 60%.

I felt that this planet is no longer a safe place to live. What killed the dinosaurs? Could it be some superbugs as well? Perhaps. And maybe it could happened again. This time on human beings.

2012 is coming.