By CHARINA CLARISSE L. ECHALUCE
The World Health Organization (WHO) has sounded the alarm over the high level of resistance to serious bacterial infections found in both high- and-low-income countries.
WHO’s new Global Antimicrobial Surveillance System (GLASS) reported widespread occurrence of antibiotic resistance among 500,000 people with suspected bacterial infections across 22 countries.
“The report confirms the serious situation of antibiotic resistance worldwide,” said Dr. Marc Sprenger, director of WHO’s Antimicrobial Resistance Secretariat.
The most commonly reported resistant bacteria are Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus pneumoniae, followed by Salmonella spp.
Among patients with suspected bloodstream infection, the proportion that had bacteria resistant to at least one of the most commonly used antibiotics ranged from zero to 82 percent, according to WHO.
Resistance to penicillin, the medicine used for decades worldwide to treat pneumonia, ranged from zero to 51 percent among reporting countries; and 8 percent to 65 percent of E. coli associated with urinary tract infections presented resistance to ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic commonly used to treat this condition.
“Some of the world’s most common – and potentially most dangerous – infections are proving drug-resistant,” Sprenger stressed.
With this, the doctor urged countries to set up good surveillance systems for drug resistance detection.
“Most worrying of all, pathogens don’t respect national borders. That’s why WHO is encouraging all countries to set up good surveillance systems for detecting drug resistance that can provide data to this global system,” Sprenger stressed.
At present, 52 countries – including 25 high-income, 20 middle-income, and 7 low-income countries – are enrolled in WHO’s Global Antimicrobial Surveillance System.
For the first report, 40 countries provided information about their national surveillance systems and 22 countries also provided data on levels of antibiotic resistance.
“The report is a vital first step towards improving our understanding of the extent of antimicrobial resistance. Surveillance is in its infancy, but it is vital to develop it if we are to anticipate and tackle one of the biggest threats to global public health,” said Dr. Carmem Pessoa-Silva who coordinates the new surveillance system at WHO.