Africa’s low testing on anti-microbial drug-resistant pathogens has been blamed on lack of lab facilities. A study across 14 sub-Saharan Africa found that only five out of the 15 antibiotic-resistant pathogens prioritised by the World Health Organisation for surveillance are being consistently tested and all five had a higher-than-expected prevalence.
Africa’s low testing on anti-microbial resistance has been blamed on lack of lab facilities. A study across 14 sub-Saharan Africa found that only five out of the 15 antibiotic-resistant pathogens prioritised by the World Health Organisation for surveillance are being consistently tested and all five had a higher-than-expected prevalence. drug-resistant pathogens, The patchy surveillance is compounding an obscure but complex problem that threatens to jeopardise achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and lead up to catastrophic health outcomes. In the countries included in the study only 1.3 percent of medical laboratories there conduct any bacteriology testing. The erratic use of available antibiotics, also contributes to resistance. New data on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) from the 14 countries released Thursday at a meeting held at the African Union in Addis Ababa, reveals the under-reported depth of the AMR crisis. “When pathogens are repeatedly exposed to an insufficient dose or an abbreviated treatment time of antimicrobials they may survive and evolve into resistant strains.
These new strains lose their susceptibility to antimicrobials that had previously been effective — creating antimicrobial resistance. Resistant pathogens can be transmitted through contamination, but also can pass their mutation mechanisms to similar ‘bystander’ pathogens, and the resistant infections spread,” said the study. drug-resistant pathogens, The results provide stark insights on a health situation the research describes as dire and “a crisis within the crisis” that needs urgent policy interventions. The report says AMR pathogens of immediate concern include Enterobacterales a large order of bacteria that includes E.coli, a common food poisoning infection, and Klebsiella pneumoniae, a common infection in health care settings. More than half of all samples tested were resistant to penicillins and cephalosporins.
Source: This news is originally published by theeastafrican