Antibiotic resistance is regarded as a “silent tsunami”, as described by Emad Ahmad, a member of the Mosul General Hospital in Iraq. The hospital’s recent antibiograms (tables showing antimicrobial susceptibility) have presented evidence of increasing antibiotic resistance for an array of bacterial infections.
Antibiotic resistance is the occurrence when bacteria become stronger than the medication used to terminate the infection. Antibiotic resistance has posed as a greater risk with an estimated 1.27 million people killed by antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections in 2019. This number surpasses the mortality rate of more complex conditions such as, HIV-AIDS or malaria. In 2019, it was recorded that 40% of patients admitted to a facility operated by Doctors Without Borders in Mosul were infected by multi-drug resistance infections.
Resistance tends to develop overtime by nature. However, the process can be expedited if antibiotics are wrongfully or overly prescribed to patients. Misuses causes the bacteria to adapt to these medicinal conditions as opposed to being eliminated by them. Using data from June 2023, Ceftriaxone was reportedly ineffective on 90% of samples, and Meropenem demonstrated increasing impotence. Both antibiotics are used via injection to treat many bacterial infections such as meningitis and pneumonia. Antibiotic resistance in Iraq has steadily evolved into an epidemic, primarily affecting the country’s war-battered cities.
By Maya Yorks