Naming a drug-resistant superbug after the Indian capital of New Delhi was an "error of judgment," the editor of a U.K. medical journal says.
Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet, said published research in August, 2010, on the "New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1 (NDM-1)" enzyme had unfairly stigmatized India, the BBC reported Thursday.
U.K. researchers dubbed the superbug "New Delhi" because some of the victims had recently traveled to India for medical treatment and surgery.
"It was an error of judgment. We didn't think of its implications, for which I sincerely apologize," Horton said during a visit to India.
The name "unnecessarily stigmatized a single country and city" and should be changed by researchers, he said.
The Indian government's health ministry had called the Lancet report exaggerated and unfair, saying the name suggested incorrectly that Delhi was the origin of the bug.
After the Lancet article, cases were reported in Europe, Canada, the United States, Africa, Australia and East Asia.
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