Regional countries need to act quickly to combat growing antibiotic resistance across the region, according to a Saudi medical expert. Dr. Abdul Mohsen Al Rasheed, director of pathology department, Riyadh Armed Forces Hospitals, told the Arab Health Congress that the region needs an anti-microbial surveillance database and a communication network to facilitate information sharing.
“We are living in a time when the issue of antimicrobial resistance is very serious,” said Dr. Al Rasheed. “We are losing the battle against bacteria, with very few effective drugs left even today.
“We have gaps in knowledge that we need to bridge if we are to confront this problem and keep it away from our hospitals, our intensive care units and our communities. There are serious risks associated with not having such a system in place.”
From the few cases reported so far, Dr Al Rasheed said that anti-microbial resistance has already proven a significant problem for hospitals and healthcare providers in the region. Some intensive care units have had to close temporarily due to rampant multi-resistant strains of bacteria threatening vulnerable patients.
Microbial resistance is most evident in diarrhoeal diseases, respiratory tract infections, meningitis, sexually transmitted infections, and hospital-acquired infections. According to the WHO, current trends suggest that some diseases will have no effective therapies within the next ten years.
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