“Tackling drug resistance with limited resources”

“In an opinion paper for The Lancet Infectious Diseases, researchers of the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp and international colleagues set out the six building blocks of clinical bacteriology for countries where the needs are great, but the means are limited. ITM currently also trains 22 international experts who can make a difference against antibiotic resistance in hospitals.

Poor countries are disproportionately burdened by infectious diseases and resistance to antibiotics, antiparasitic and antiviral drugs. Good quality bacteriology is a prerequisite for effective antimicrobial control, but countries with limited resources face infrastructural, technical and cultural challenges when implementing clinical bacteriology. This starts for example with the need for equipment that is resistant to harsh conditions such as high temperatures, humidity, dust, sunlight, and transport to remote locations. In the absence of clinical bacteriology, patients with fever often get the standard diagnosis malaria, even if they have a bacterial or parasitic infection.”

Source: Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp