NEW DELHI, India — Bacteria carrying a gene that makes them highly resistant to antibiotics have been detected in New Delhi’s drinking water, Reuters reported.

The gene, known as New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1 or NDM 1, creates “superbugs” that are resistant to almost all known antibiotics, the article stated.

Researchers from Britain’s Cardiff University School of Medicine collected swabs from public tap water supplies and seepage water around the city, finding the NDM 1 gene in two of the drinking water samples and 51 seepage samples, according to the story.

“We would expect that perhaps as many as half a million people are carrying NDM 1-producing bacteria as normal (gut) flora in New Dehli alone,” said Mark Toleman, one of the researchers.

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