| News Details |
| Antibiotic Resistance Could Impact Maternal and Child Death Reduction | | 
By: Aarti Dhar in Copenhagen
With resistance to life saving antibiotic drugs increasing at a scaring pace, experts now fear it could be detrimental to the efforts being made towards reducing maternal and neonatal mortality. It is estimated that more than 30,000 women die annually as a result of severe infections while giving birth. Similarly, more than 40,000 newborn babies lose their lives to acute infection with these deaths occurring more in developing nations.
"The situation will get a lot worse if antibiotics that treat these infections become less effective," says Dr Flavia Bustreo, Assistant Director General, family, Women’s and Children’s Health at WHO.
While there is very little good data available on the prevalence of infections that are resistant to antibiotics, current estimates suggest that more than 200,000 newborns die globally each year from infections that do not respond to available drugs. According to the WHO, studies based mostly on data from larger hospitals - where there is more risk of bacteria circulating that are resistant to antibiotics – suggest than in about 4 of every 10 newborns with severe infections, there is resistance to standard treatments.
All 11 countries in the South East Asia region of WHO have eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus with Indonesia being the last one to prevent tetanus related deaths. India has already managed to eliminate ante-natal and neonatal deaths due to tetanus. Though in high-income countries, maternal and newborn deaths from infection are now rare, the early 20th century saw massive improvements in hygiene and infection control, and maternal mortality rates started to fall. Widespread use of antibiotics to treat infection when it occurred pushed mortality rates down further.
Premature babies are particularly at the risk of severe illness and death from blood infections. Neonatal intensive care units around the world have had to close because of contamination with highly resistant strains. World Health Organisation has already developed a global action plan on antimicrobial resistance to improve awareness and understanding of the problem, reduce the incidence of infection and optimize the use of antimicrobials among other things. The world health body has also recommended that antibiotics should be only routinely given to women at the time of delivery only under specified conditions, and to newborns only if there are signs of severe blood infection or as a last resort of treatment. Instead, it has suggested better management of common childhood conditions including improved hand hygiene in health care to prevent infection.
Giving birth can be risky for mothers and babies because their immune systems are not at full strength to fight infection either from bugs that the mother is already carrying or from infections that both mother and child pick up from the hospital. When health facilities lack toilets and water for washing and are overcrowded and unhygienic, the risks are much higher.
"It is important to stop the spread of infection by taking measures like having basic water and sanitation services and good hygiene and not keeping the babies in hospital longer than necessary," Dr Bustreo explains.
There has been progress in developing countries too with efforts to prevent infections through better water, sanitation and hygiene, and widespread use of antibiotics have contributed significantly in child and maternal mortality. However, the effectiveness of antibiotics has led people to overuse them. The more antibiotics are consumed by human beings and animals, the more bugs are exposed to them and the quicker they become resistant, and the drugs stops working. And, there are no new antibiotics drugs in the pipeline to replace he old ones if they become ineffective.
(Aarti Dhar is a Delhi-based senior journalist who has covered a variety of social, developmental and political issues, which include over two-decade-long association with The Hindu as Deputy Editor)
(Disclaimer: The views, observations and opinions expressed in above write up of Scoop News are strictly author's own. Scoop News does not take any onus or liability for the veracity, accuracy, validity, completeness, suitability of any of information in the above given write up. The information, facts or figures appearing in the write up in no way manifest the position, standpoint or stance of Scoop News and the Scoop News does not assume any encumbrance or answerability of the same.)
Editor
Scoop News,(scoopnews.in)
... |
| |
|
|
Share this Story |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|