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CDC said spread of antimicrobial resistance in Ukraine is an ‘urgent crisis’
About 60 percent of patients had infections resistant to “last resort” antibiotics
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Superbugs resistant to some of the most powerful antibiotics are spreading rapidly across war-torn Ukraine, and US health officials have now issued a warning that infections are spreading beyond the country’s borders.
The country’s hospitals are battling a rapid rise in drug-resistant infections, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says are “spreading to Europe.”
Officials said the spread of antimicrobial resistance in Ukraine is an “urgent crisis” that must be addressed.
Researchers sampled hundreds of Ukrainian patients for infections contracted while in hospital in November and December 2022.
Paramedics check the condition of wounded soldiers on the resuscitation bus on August 11, 2023 in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine.
Imipenem-cilastatin is an antibiotic used to treat serious infections caused by bacteria such as pneumonia. It is known as a carbapenem antibiotic because it is very effective.
They found that about 60 percent of patients had infections resistant to carbapenem antibiotics, which the CDC describes as a last-line-of-defense antibiotic because it is typically very effective.
In comparison, only six percent of samples from similar types of infections were resistant to carbapenem antibiotics in a European study conducted through 2017.
The study authors wrote: “In Ukraine, the confluence of high rates of pre-war antimicrobial resistance, an increase in the prevalence of traumatic wounds, and war-related stress on healthcare facilities is leading to a increased detection of multidrug-resistant organisms with spread to Europe.’
Health officials have been warning for years about rising antimicrobial resistance as a result of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The European equivalent of the CDC raised the alarm in March 2022 that hospitals should isolate and test patients in Ukraine to prevent multidrug-resistant organisms.
Dr Amesh Adalja, an infectious diseases doctor working at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told DailyMail.com: “Ukraine has been shown to be a reservoir of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and it is not surprising cases are increasing given that a war is going on there, causing injuries and delaying the ability to get medical care.
“Similar problems occurred during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom) and American soldiers contracted drug-resistant infections.”
Dr. Adalja added: “Antimicrobial resistance is a global problem that is only increasing; what is happening is not specific to Ukraine but another example of that.” This phenomenon has been, for decades, a growing threat to modern medicine.’
Last year in Germany, infections from drug-resistant bacteria spiked after March 2022, in connection with refugees from Ukraine.
The largest increase in Germany was in the case of drug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae.
In the US, about five percent of Klebsiella samples in 2021 were resistant, the CDC found.
In the most recent study conducted in Ukraine, all Klebsiella samples tested from patients were resistant to carbapenem antibiotics.
In July, U.S. military doctors who treated a Ukrainian soldier in Ukraine said the patient had been infected by six “highly drug-resistant bacteria,” including Klebsiella pneumoniae, after suffering severe burns to more than half of his body. .