Mid-pandemic, pneumonia is becoming untreatable in Bangladesh due to antibiotic resistance.
According to more than 4,000 health records reviewed between 2014 and 2017, children with antibiotic-resistant bacterial illnesses were 17 times more likely to die than those without bacterial infections.
Staph and strep infections, which are major causes of pneumonia in the United States and elsewhere, were very uncommon. Gram-negative bacteria, such as Pseudomonas, E. coli, Salmonella, and Klebsiella, were responsible for 77 percent of pneumonia infections in children in Bangladesh.
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Antibiotic-resistant bacteria were found in 77 percent of the cases. With this change in Bangladesh, antibiotic resistance has gone from a theoretical horizon to a startling reality.
According to Jason Harris, MD, MPH, co-first author of the research and head of the division of Pediatric Global Health at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children:
These kids are already dying early because of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, from what would be a routine infection in other parts of the world.
And this was at one hospital in Bangladesh. Extrapolate these findings across a country of 163 million people, and then to a larger region where antibiotic resistance is emerging, and the overall numbers are probably huge.
Dr. Tahmeed Ahmed, PhD, the study’s principal author, thinks that antibiotics are being abused across Bangladesh, where individuals may buy them without a prescription to self-treat illnesses such as the common cold or fevers.
Dr Ahmed added:
We may be able to reduce this emerging bacterial resistance by improving antibiotic stewardship, particularly in the outpatient setting. What’s more, lack of access to clean water and adequate sanitation helps spread bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.
Improvements in hospital infrastructure, he believes, are long needed.
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The results of the study were published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.
Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
