Shock as seven-month-old’s infection resists antibiotics
The baby has a bacterial infection that has resisted eight different antibiotics.
A seven-month-old baby who has been receiving treatment has been found to have a bacterial infection that has resisted eight different antibiotics, revealing the crisis facing the country due to over-exposure to over-the-counter drugs.
Dr Edwin Kamanja, who has been attending to the infant at a faith-based hospital in Meru County, told the Saturday Nation that the baby was brought in with severe acute malnutrition three months ago.
“The baby had persistent fevers and we learnt that it had been subjected to multiple outpatient treatments with antibiotics without lab tests.”
Results of a culture and sensitivity lab test identified Staphylococcus aureus (staph), a bacterium that causes infections in different parts of the body and is tougher to treat because it is resistant to some commonly used antibiotics.
According to the results, the bacteria resisted Ceftazidime, Gentamicin, Cefuroxime, Azithromycin, Meropenem, Ceftriaxone, Piperacillin and Amoxicillin/Clavulanic acid. “The resistance is due to abuse of antibiotics in the numerous outpatient set-ups the parents visited. There is a chance the baby got infected with an already resistant bug.”
The doctor suspects that this could be a case of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a type of staph bacteria that is resistant to certain antibiotics called beta-lactams and they include Methicillin and others such as Oxacillin, Penicillin and Amoxicillinas as the samples were not tested against Methicillin.
But according to Dr Peter Aduro Kidaha, a paediatrician based in Kakamega County, there is need for more and proper investigations to be done.
“The child needs to be investigated if there are underlying medical conditions that could be triggering the severe malnutrition or failure to thrive. The tests are varied depending on what the child is presenting,” he said.
“From the studies done in 1999 on prevalence of malnutrition in Kenya, there are regional variations in prevalence of malnutrition and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) cases are expected to rise in response to variation in house-hold income and changes in the cost of living. This is also in response to drought affecting many parts of the country and slow recovery from the effects of Covid-19,” Dr Kidaha added.
Dr Evelyn Wesangula, who is in-charge of the AMR programme at the Ministry of Health (MoH), similarly told the Saturday Nation that the child needs to see an infectious disease expert.
“More information is required for this and more lab tests need to be done.”
The expert in a recent interview explained that when an infection develops multi-drug resistance, it requires antibiotics of a higher class. “When prescriptions are done poorly or patients use drugs in an unintended way, it gives the micro-organisms a chance to become stronger.”
Dr Wesangula further pointed out that if the cost of the drug is prohibitive, a patient is tempted to buy half a dose.
“Some never go back for a second dose, thus exposing micro-organisms to lower doses makes them grow, mutate and develop resistance.”
In 2019, a global study found that bacterial infections that could not be cured by antibiotics because of resistance to drugs killed more people than HIV/Aids and malaria.
