A recently emerged superbug is spreading in Europe and prudent use of antibiotics can be the key to effective prevention, a senior health expert said Thursday.

According to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the European Union's medical watchdog based in Stockholm, a total of 77 cases of what is known as NDM-1 have been detected in 13 European countries since 2008, Dr. Dominique Monnet, an ECDC program coordinator, told Xinhua in a telephone interview.

Among the reported cases, Britain accounted for 51, or 66 percent, and Klebsiella pneumoniae, a bacterium that can cause pneumonia, was the most frequently reported bacterium harboring NDM-1, Monnet said.

NDM-1 cases have also been found Australia, Canada, Singapore, the United States and a number of other countries and regions. A majority of the cases had a history of recent travel and hospital admission on the Indian subcontinent.

NDM-1, or New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, refers to an enzyme that renders bacteria resistant to almost all known antibiotics. As its name suggests, it originated from the Indian capital of New Delhi.

ECDC statistics showed that 31 of the infected had previously traveled or been admitted to a hospital in India or Pakistan, and five had been hospitalized in the Balkan region.

The gloomy picture "is very serious because the NDM-1 bacteria and some other types like them are resistant to even the most powerful class of antibiotics known as carbapenems," Monnet said. "The options for treatment is very limited."

While there is almost no way to treat these cases, he said, there are ways to prevent it from spreading, such as improving the hygiene situation in hospitals and health care places and promoting public awareness.

"One should use antibiotics only when it is necessary," Monnet said, noting that bacteria began to have resistant effects since the first type of antibiotics, or penicillin, was introduced.