Naming superbug after Delhi an ‘error’, Lancet says sorry

New Delhi: The editor of The Lancet, Richard Horton, has said naming a superbug after New Delhi was an “error”, and has apologised.

Some Europeans returning from South Asia had been found infected with a bacteria carrying a drug-resistant gene last year, which had been named New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1, as the first patient had flown from Delhi to Sweden with the infection.
While acknowledging this was a mistake, Horton said, "the science behind the NDM-1 discovery was very strong and correct".
A study published by The Lancet in August 2010 had said NDM-1 made bacteria resistant to almost all antibiotics, including the most powerful carbapenems. After the Indian government objected, the study's lead researcher, Timothy R Walsh, told The Indian Express that it was not new to name bacteria after a city.
Horton, who launched the The Lancet: India Series, said the journal's team did not think through the implications of the bug being named NDM. Asked if there were plans to change the name, Horton said: "I hope that the name can be changed, but it is up to the microbiologists. There has been a lot of discussion, but nothing more than that."

Horton said The Lancet had learnt a lesson from the episode, "and for every new discovery, I believe, one should definitely think properly about the name".
Speaking about the NDM-1 last year, Walsh had said: "We have named the bacteria NDM-1 as the original patient who was investigated had flown back to Sweden from India with the infection. It was known that the origin of infection was India and not Sweden. In the tradition of naming these types of bacteria resistances, we named it after the city as the bacteria had originated from New Delhi.
It is common to name a new type of beta-lactamase (i.e. antibiotic-destroying enzyme) after the place where it is first identified. Another similar enzyme, circulating in Brazil is named SPM, as Sao Paulo Metallo; another is VIM, Verona Imipenemase, etc."