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Medical Author:

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Dr. Charles "Pat" Davis, MD, PhD, is a board certified Emergency Medicine doctor who currently practices as a consultant and staff member for hospitals. He has a PhD in Microbiology (UT at Austin), and the MD (Univ. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston). He is a Clinical Professor (retired) in the Division of Emergency Medicine, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, and has been the Chief of Emergency Medicine at UT Medical Branch and at UTHSCSA with over 250 publications.

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Medical Editor:

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.

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Many medical caregivers and researchers are concerned about NDM-1 because it renders some of the most useful and powerful antibiotics (carbapenems) ineffective. These antibiotics are often the medications of choice for severe infections. In addition, since the bla_NDM-1 gene that produces the enzyme is often associated with other genes that code for other antibiotic-resistance factors, they are concerned that such resistance will be quickly passed to most gram-negative bacteria, thus rendering a huge group of bacteria resistant to most of the currently used antibiotics. Although this spread is unlikely to be considered a pandemic like bird or swine flu, outbreaks of diseases caused by NDM-1 bacteria could result in high mortality. Researchers also are concerned that current antibiotic susceptibility tests often may take a minimum of two days to complete, which for a critically infected patient may be a long time to be treated with antibiotics that may not have the ability to inhibit or kill infecting bacteria.

The field of research on NDM-1 is extremely active at this time; there should be many developments in clinical diagnostic methods, antibiotic treatment plans, and antibiotics in the near future. Unfortunately, the number of people infected with and carrying NDM-1 bacteria is likely to increase rapidly; researchers plan to try to stay a step ahead of these potentially dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria, but there is no guarantee they will be successful. Prevention of infection is the best defense against these bacteria.

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