Patients bring new superbug into UK after surgery abroad.

Byline: Nick McDermott

A NEW antibiotic-resistant superbug is being brought into Britain by patients having surgery abroad, a health watchdog warned.

It has been linked to the deaths of two people in the UK and has left 18 others seriously ill in the past year.

So far 17 hospitals in Britain have treated confirmed cases, prompting the Health Protection Agency to issue a warning about what it describes as 'a notable public health risk'.

Many of those contracting the superbug, which produces an enzyme that destroys even the most powerful antibiotics, have had cosmetic surgery, liver and kidney transplants in India and Pakistan.

Other cases of the bug, known as enterobacteriaceae, have been reported from those returning after hospital stays in Greece, Israel and Turkey.

The latest strain resists all standard antibiotics usually used by the NHS, so doctors are having to fall back on olderstyle drugs to treat infections.

John McConnell, editor of the medical journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, said: 'There's the potential for this to become a substantial problem of antibiotic resistance within UK hospitals, and there's not much we can do at the moment.

'Compared to MRSA or C difficile or a regular pneumonia-type infection this is pretty small beer, purely in terms of the number of cases so far. But small beer is the way that things like MRSA started.' There are fears the antibiotic-resistant enzyme could now jump from one strain of bacteria to another, meaning it could attach itself to more dangerous infections making them almost impossible to treat.

More than 100,000 people went abroad for treatment ranging from heart operations to plastic surgery in 2007. A medical website specialising in treatment overseas predicted that the figure could double in two years, meaning 200,000 Britons may be seeking surgery abroad this year.

A spokesman for the HPA said: ' We have been warning for some time of the risk from infections which are more difficult to treat due to antibiotic resistance.' He added: 'Identifying possible resistance among infections is particularly important among patients who have been in hospitals in the Indian subcontinent and the Eastern Mediterranean including Greece, Turkey and Israel 'Careful monitoring of the situation is needed.'