MSF warns of antibiotic resistance crisis in Gaza
pharmafile | October 19, 2018 | News story | Medical Communications | AMR, Gaza, MSF, Palestine, antibiotic resistance, israel
The international non-governmental organisation (NGO) Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has warned that antibiotic resistant infections are a “certainty” in Gaza.
The medical NGO has declared that “action must be taken,” to prevent an epidemic of antibiotic resistance in the Israeli occupied Palestinian territory.
The NGO has suggested that the crisis has been compounded in recent months by “the violent response of Israeli forces to Palestinian protestors in Gaza”.
Notably, MSF received 2228 trauma patients, between April and September of this year, 90% of whom were Palestinians seeking care for lower limb injuries from gunshot wounds. The organisation noted that many patients arrived after previous surgeries in hospitals with limited infection control procedures and as such wound breakdown, tibial non-union, osteomyelitis, and amputation will be unavoidable.
MSF warns that poor infection control, irrational prescription practices, and easy antibiotic availability are widespread while outbreaks of antibiotic have been documented previously.
Meanwhile Israel’s response to protesters in Gaza has sent Gaza’s already overburdened healthcare system into crisis, thus risking an epidemic of antibiotic resistant infections.
This has been compounded by the fact that 94% of all patients referred for treatment outside of Gaza were denied exit.
As such MSF are calling for the improvement of laboratory supply chains, internal quality controls, standardised antibiotic sensitivity testing, guideline availability, surveillance of antibiotic resistance, rational antibiotic use, and robust infection control procedures.
Louis Goss
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