Misdiagnosis, climate change to blame for pathogens' resistance to drugs
Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi
AKDN
Media Source: The Standard (Kenya)
Date: 8 April 2024
At this year’s microbiology conference held last month in Nairobi courtesy of Aga Khan University Hospital, Professor Oladele highlighted a growing concern where patients are exposed to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) due to misdiagnosis. “Clinicians do not routinely suspect or look for fungal infections when they are…
At this year’s microbiology conference held last month in Nairobi courtesy of Aga Khan University Hospital, Professor Oladele highlighted a growing concern where patients are exposed to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) due to misdiagnosis. “Clinicians do not routinely suspect or look for fungal infections when they are developing a diagnosis. That being the case, they do not request that laboratories isolate them in the samples they send. There is a shortage of laboratories able to test for the presence of fungal pathogens in samples. Proper diagnostics is at the centre of Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS),” she said. AMR is among the top 10 global public health concerns threatening humanity, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Unfortunately, the highest rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), where pathogens survive in the presence of a drug that once annihilated them, are in sub-Saharan Africa.