Of course, where there are Indians there’s bound to be something weird lurking in the background.

Isn’t that why we call the country Incredible India. 😉

Sui Generis Exports
When it comes to exports, you can’t beat Indians.

You see, India has always been very aggressive and at the front of the line.

No matter, if India’s unique brand of exports don’t show up in the balance of trade numbers, which is forever in the negative.

Just look at India’s non pareil exports over the last couple of centuries.

First, in the pre-Independence era India exported Coolies to South Africa, West Indies and other far flung corners of the Empire.

Post independence, India exported its manpower to the U.S. and U.K..

Then came the Gulf boom in the 1970s when to prove that you were really from the South Indian state of Kerala meant a passport with Visa stamps from Saudi Arabia or Oman and a Panasonic two-in-1 blaring in the background.

In the late 1990s and early years of the 20th century, India’s principal exports were software Coolies to the U.S., U.K., Germany doing the crappy low-end coding tasks.

New Export
Now comes news that India has once again found something unique to export.

This time around, India’s hot new export from its hospitals is the Superbug.

Experts say the Superbug is highly resistant to antibiotics, which means if you catch an infection containing the Superbug bacteria you could be in serious trouble.

Apparently, UK residents who visited India for cosmetic surgery are returning home with more than a bigger tit or a tighter pussy.

Media reports suggest there have been some fatalities already although details are still scarce.

Lancet Infectious Diseases warns that it’s ‘potentially a major global health problem’:

The potential of NDM-1 to be a worldwide public health problem is great, and co-ordinated international surveillance is needed.

Scientists are calling the culprit NDM-1 for New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase 1.

Wiki describes NDM-1 as a gene that makes bacteria resistant to antibiotics of the carbapenem family by encoding a type of beta-lactamase enzyme called a carbapenemase.

Here’s an excerpt from the BBC:

The superbug gene, which can be swapped between different bacteria to make them resistant to most drugs, has so far been identified in 37 people who returned to the U.K. after undergoing surgery in India or Pakistan.

The resistant gene has also been detected in Australia, Canada, the U.S., the Netherlands and Sweden. The researchers say since many Americans and Europeans travel to India and Pakistan for elective procedures like cosmetic surgery, it was likely the superbug gene would spread worldwide.

Did anyone say that medical tourism is India’s next big hope? 😉