Rising Surge of Antimicrobial Resistance and Urinary Tract Infections in Pakistani Children: A Potential Life Threating Scenario

Author(s): Sara Rizwan Uppal, Aftab Ahmad Khan, Rizwan Uppal, Umar Saeed, Zahra Zahid Piracha, Rehan Uppal

Bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become a leading threat to global public health. Depending upon raised global surge of AMR cases it has been speculated that by 2050, AMR associated death troll may surpass 10 million per year. One in five deaths occurred in children below five years of age, due to previously treatable infections such as vaccine preventable pneumococcal bacterial disease. In January 2022, 1873 urine culture tests were evaluated and 34.4% tests were positive against multiple drug resistant strains. While in February 2022 1865 tests were evaluated against multiple drug resistant strains, and 31.7% positive tests were shown resistant. While in March 2022, the 28.2% tests were found resistant against multiple drugs. It has been reported from 75 different branches of Islamabad Diagnostic Center (covering whole Pakistan region) that several patients did not respond to treatment or partially get treated after antibiotic treatment consequently remained unyielding or negative. Such untreated or partially treated patients lose the option of timely usage of specific sensitive antibiotic. This phenomenon is becoming leading cause of AMR in patients from Pakistan. It is the need of hour to leverage the estimates to course-correct action and drive innovation to stay ahead in the combat against AMR.