Dubai: The superbug that has taken the world by storm and its impact on medical tourism is to top the agenda at the World Medical Tourism Congress meeting this month in Los Angeles where Dubai is to be a diamond sponsor.
The so-called “superbug” is an enzyme named the New Delhi Mettallo-1 (NDM-1).
Renee-Marie Stephano, president of the Medical Tourism Association, said a special session on international threats to global medical tourism would be held at the congress from September 22 to 24.
“Though it’s too early to reach to any conclusion, we consider it a important issue,” she said in a statement.
The congress is expected to attract experts from 70 countries and from the Centre for Disease Control in a bid to educate industry representatives about this new threat. It is also expected to discuss expatriate healthcare travel insurance.
Meanwhile, Dubai is keen to promote itself on the global medical tourism map.
“Medical tourism is an integral aspect of healthcare, especially in the context of today’s globalised world,” said Qadi Saeed Al Muroushid, director-general of the Dubai Health Authority (DHA), on the reasons for its sponsorship of the congress.
Dr Prem Jagyasi, honorary chief strategy officer at the US-based Medical Tourism Association, told Gulf News that the “superbug” was potentially a very serious threat.
“The public has to some extent become inured to such pronouncements and have become quite cynical about them,” he said. “My concern is that there will be an equivalent level of cynicism about the NDM-1.”
Normal practice
India has objected to the name of the enzyme, saying it could have serious effects on its medical tourism industry.
“We shouldn’t really get too diverted on issues of semantics or a blame game and instead [we should] look for ways to co-operate internationally to stop this threat [from] becoming a pandemic reality, ” Dr Jagyasi said.
“I think it’s normal practice in bionmial nomenclature to name an organism after the place where it is first identified,” he added.
“Superbugs are present in many countries. Such a threat can originate from anywhere across the globe. It would be more appropriate if researchers and destinations work together to identify threat and take most appropriate course of action to control it.”
He said it was too early to tell whether medical tourism to India would be adversely affected, as regulatory bodies were still gauging their response to the threat.
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