Press. voanews.com
New data from 22
high- and low-income countries show antibiotic resistance to a number of
serious bacterial infections is growing at an alarming rate. The World Health
Organization surveyed one-half million people with suspected bacterial
infections between March 2016 and July 2017. The survey, the first of its kind,
is vital in improving and understanding the extent of antimicrobial resistance
in the world. World Health Organization Spokesman Christian Lindmeier, tells
VOA the findings raise many red flags.
“The data that
these countries provided show us that in some of the most common bacteria, the
most commonly reported resistant bacteria, we find the resistance of sometimes
up to 65 even up to 82 percent, depending on the bacteria. And... these are
really alarming data,” he said.
The most
commonly reported resistant bacteria include e-coli bacterial infection, staph
infections, pneumonia and salmonella. The World Health Organization is
encouraging all countries to set up good surveillance systems for detecting
drug resistance. This, it says, will provide needed information to tackle what
it calls one of the biggest threats to global public health. If drug resistance
is not successfully tackled, Lindmeier warns the world could return to the
dangerous days before penicillin was invented.
“A simple
infection, a cut, minor surgery suddenly can turn into a potentially most
dangerous, life-threatening situation because infections would then prove drug
resistant," he said. "A cancer treatment for example would become a
huge challenge on top of the cancer because the already low immune system could
not be boosted any more with antibiotics. Any infection would pose an
additional risk.”
Lindmeier says
some countries are taking these warnings to heart. For example, he notes Kenya
is enhancing its national antimicrobial resistance system, Tunisia is now
collecting national drug-resistant data, and Korea is strengthening its
surveillance system.