Cheap Drugs May Have Turned This Indian Lake Into A 'Superbug Hotspot'

Centuries ago, Indian princes would bathe in the cool Kazhipally lake in Medak. Now, even the poorest villagers here in India’s baking south point to the barren banks and frothy water and say they avoid going anywhere near it. A short drive from the bustling tech hub of Hyderabad, Medak is the heart of India’s antibiotics manufacturing business: a district of about 2.5 million that has become one of the world’s largest suppliers of cheap drugs to most markets, including the United States. But community activists, researchers and some drug company employees say the presence of more than 300 drug firms, combined with lax oversight and inadequate water treatment, has left lakes and rivers laced with antibiotics, making this a giant Petri dish for anti-microbial resistance. “Resistant bacteria are breeding here and will affect the whole world,” said Kishan Rao, a doctor and activist who has been working in Patancheru, a Medak industrial zone where many drug manufacturers have bases, for more than two decades. Drugmakers in Medak, including large Indian firms Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd (REDY.NS), Aurobindo Pharma Ltd (ARBN.NS) and Hetero Drugs Ltd, and U.S. giant Mylan Inc (MYL.O), say they comply with local environmental rules and do not discharge effluent into waterways. National and local government are divided on the scale of the problem. While the Central Pollution Control Board (PCB) in New Delhi categorizes Medak’s Patancheru area ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news