A Mumbai group screened 1000 consecutive fecal samples in healthy outpatients collected from January to June 2011 for carbapenem resistance using standard methods. In all samples, none were carbapenem resistant. However, they found 227 E coli and 12 Klebsiella species that were ESBL producers. Compared to their 2004 study that found ESBL in 11% of healthy people, the increase to 24% is pretty alarming. So good news and bad news in the same report. Just one comment: The same Mumbai group reported significant numbers (49 isolates) of NDM-1 containing Gram-negative bacilli in a study that included 310 carbapenem-resistant bacteria collected from Sept 2009 to May 2010.
Source: Deshpande et al. J Antimicrob. Chemother 2012.