The key findings of this study are:
- Bacteriology testing is done in only 1.3 percent of the biology laboratories across the 14 participating countries.
- Out of the 205 participating laboratories, only 26 percent of the labs use electronic laboratory information systems.
- 80 percent of the labs conduct less than 1,000 antimicrobial susceptibility tests every year.
- 12 African countries have DRIs (Drug Resistance Indexes) that indicate that AMR is a major health hazard.
- In 8 of the 14 countries, over half of the population don’t have access to any bacteriology laboratory.
- Out of all the samples (187,000) tested for AMR, nearly 88 percent had no data on the clinical profiles of patients, including the origin/diagnosis of infection and antimicrobial usage.
- There is limited access to some groups of antibiotics, especially the stronger drugs required for treating resistant infections.
Factors that Drive AMR (at patient and country levels)
Certain patient populations were found to be at a greater risk of acquiring antimicrobial resistant infections (though further studies are required to confirm the same). For example, patients on prior antibiotics had a higher rate of antimicrobial resistance than the counterfactual group.