Beyond the Frontlines – Tackling Drug Resistance in Conflict Zones

Send us Fan MailImagine this scene:A family’s house was destroyed when it was bombed during a war. They got out with the clothes on their backs – nothing more. When they were fleeing, the mother was hit with fragments from another bomb. It tore off part of her leg. Dirt got in the wound.They made it to a refugee camp, but the wound got infected. With nothing available to treat the injury, the infection got worse. She had a drug-resistant infection that wasn’t treatable with regular antibiotics. Her entire leg and part of her hip had to be removed to save her life. She will have a physical disability for the rest of her life.This is just one story of drug resistance or antimicrobial resistance (AMR)  and the impact of armed conflict. Report after report finds that victims of armed conflict and refugees – both those seeking shelter abroad and inside their own countries – are especially likely to suffer from drug-resistant infections.Dr. Aula Abbara, Consultant in Infectious Diseases and Acute Medicine and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at Imperial College, London, has been studying the problem firsthand.She’s worked with teams that found people injured in Syria’s 15-year-long conflict not only suffered terrible wounds, but then developed worse infections because of crowded and unsanitary conditions in healthcare facilities. These war-damaged hospital laboratories in Syria, especially, lacked the capacity to test for drug-resistant bacteria, and so doctors didn’t know which antibiotics to prescribe to treat patients’ infections.Solutions require taking a One Health approach, Dr. Abbara and colleagues have found.She and her colleagues call for programs to bring in more health professionals and healthcare access; introduction of easy-to-use diagnostics so people’s infections can be immediately diagnosed and thus treated with the correct drugs; stopping the improper use and distribution of antibiotics; and proper surveillance so that professionals know which drug-resistant infections are spreading and where.In this episode of One World, One Health, Dr. Abbara chats with host Maggie Fox about what she’s seen and what might help.