October 03, 2023
Out in the Financial Times, an article highlights the rising prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in war-torn Ukraine. In early 2023, doctors found that a soldier in Ukraine who was wounded in the country’s armed conflict with Russia had an infection that was resistant to almost every antibiotic available. Despite the spread of antibiotic-resistant infections in several parts of the country, the economic and political fallout from the war has distracted governments from mitigating the health threat. The data on AMR-linked death is often not high quality and countries that have invested in better surveillance and have more accurate data may be penalized, while infections—like those found in Ukrainian migrants in Germany—cannot be tracked within national borders. Data from the collaborative project that OHT contributes to, the Mapping Antimicrobial Resistance and Antimicrobial Use Partnership, highlights that just 1.3 percent of 500,000 laboratories in 14 African countries conduct bacteriological testing. OHT’s Ramanan Laxminarayan comments, “in contrast to modeling projections—eastern and southern Africa has a greater AMR burden than west Africa.”
Read the article here.
