Researchers have discovered traces of "superbug" on remote beaches of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India, that could potentially bring the next deadly pandemic.
According to the study, published in the journal mBio, clear evidence of Candida Auris, a multidrug-resistant organism, has been found in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The authors of the report called it a "landmark discovery." C. Auris is also known as a 'superbug' as it is able to resist main anti-fungal treatments.
The study stated that the coronavirus pandemic has offered the "perfect conditions for widespread outbreaks" of C. Auris.
A research team led by Dr. Anuradha Chowdhary of Delhi University examined 48 samples of soil and water. These were collected from eight natural sites around the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal.
The research team then isolated C. Auris from two sites. These were - a salt marsh wetland which is seldom visited by people and a beach with more people visiting.
"It was found the C. Auris isolates from the beach were all multi-drug resistant and were more closely related to strains seen in hospitals compared with the isolates found in the marsh," said Chowdhary, as cited in the Live Science report.
The findings of the study indicated that the C. Auris isolated from the salt marsh was not drug resistant. The superbug grew at a slower pace at high temperatures in contrast with the other isolates. This suggested that the isolate could potentially be a "wilder" strain of the 'superbug'.
Dr. Arturo Casadevall, chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, noted that the isolate might be one that is yet to adapt to the body temperatures of humans and animals.
However, the researchers were not able to prove that the 'superbug' lived naturally on the islands or that it had originated from there.
The researchers added in their study that it is possible that the 'superbug' could have been transferred on the islands by people especially at the beach site since it is regularly visited by humans.
"C. Auris survives on the skin before entering the body through wounds. Once in the bloodstream, it causes severe illness and can lead to sepsis -- a condition that kills up to 11 million people a year globally," the World Health Organization said about the 'superbug'.