Ontario's first case of the antibiotic-resistant NDM-1 bug was confirmed in a Brampton hospital, an employee confirmed.
A patient who was admitted to the emergency room at the Brampton Civic Hospital recently tested positive for the enzyme, which so far has not been treatable by any antibiotic. It is resistant to the carbapenem family of antibiotics, usually the last line of defence against resistant superbugs.
The hospital said that the patient was flagged using screening protocol and that the patient is no longer in the hospital.
NDM-1 sparked worldwide alarm after researchers announced they had discovered dozens of cases of infections caused by bacteria with the NDM-1 gene. The patients were from India, Pakistan, and Britain. The study was published in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases earlier this month.
Two other Canadian cases of NDM-1 have been reported, both in patients who had travelled to India.