Study Shows Nigerian Babies are Born With Antibiotic-resistant Bacteria
The report by Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, which examined samples from mothers and newborns in Nigeria stated that babies younger than one week old already had colistin-resistant bacteria.
It fingered “colistin” which even though neither mothers nor infants had been treated with the antibiotic varient in the 4,907 samples analyzed.
Curiously, one percent, the study found out, had genes conferring colistin resistance, affecting 41 mothers and eight babies.
Colistin is considered a last-resort antibiotic, critical for treating severe infections when other antibiotics fail. The presence of colistin-resistant bacteria in newborns is particularly concerning because it suggests that these babies could be at a higher risk of developing drug-resistant infections in the future.
Sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, has some of the highest rates of deaths associated with antimicrobial resistance, with 23.5 deaths per 100,000 people. By 2050, it is predicted that more people will die from antimicrobial resistance than from cancer and diabetes combined.
The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies AMR as one of the top global public health and development threats. The overuse and misuse of antibiotics in both human medicine and agriculture have accelerated this process, posing a significant risk to global health.
Sepsis, a life-threatening condition caused by the body’s extreme response to infection, accounts for about 11 million deaths globally each year. The rise of antimicrobial resistance makes treating sepsis increasingly difficult.
The study points to the potential link between the use of colistin in agriculture and the emergence of resistance in humans. Globally, more antibiotics are prescribed to animals than to humans.
According to the report, Colistin is rarely used in Nigerian hospitals, suggesting that its resistance may stem from agricultural settings where it is used to promote growth and prevent infections in livestock.
Most of this consumption is not to treat infections but to prevent infections or promote faster growth in animals. Estimates suggest that almost 100,000 tonnes of antibiotics were used to raise cattle, sheep, chickens, and pigs in 2022, with usage expected to increase by another 8% by 2030.
The report calls for a global ban on the indiscriminate use of colistin in agriculture to preserve its effectiveness for human medicine.