4 days ago
Gaza residents face new threat from antibiotic-resistant disease, says Lancet research
The war ravaged Gaza has now encountered a new threat wherein diseases resistant to antibiotics are spreading across the devastated territory endangering millions of people, who are already dealing with a scarcity of medical and aid supplies, The Guardian reported.
The 22-month old war with Israel has crippled the medical supplies in the country and tens of thousands of people have been injured while several others have been suffering from malnutrition. Hence, the high levels of drug-resistant bacteria would signify more illness with a longer duration and a rapid transmission of infectious diseases leading to more deaths, experts said.
The peer-reviewed research comment, published in the Lancet Infectious Disease on Tuesday, is the first since the war between Israel and Gaza based Hamas militant group began in October 2023 and suggests a prevalence of multi-drug-resistant bacteria in Gaza.
According to epidemiology adviser to Médecins Sans Frontières, who is also the co-author of the studies on drug-resistant bacteria in Gaza, 'This will mean longer and more serious illnesses and a high risk of transmission to others. It means an increased risk of death from really common infections. It means more amputations. It's a horrible picture.'
The study published in the Lancet Infectious Disease is based on 1,300 samples collected from al-Ahli hospital in Gaza, where one of the rare microbiology laboratories is still functional. Samples were taken from the patients over a 10-month period last year and two-thirds of them showed the presence of multi-drug-resistant bacteria.
One of the authors of the study, Bilal Irfan, called the results 'particularly alarming'.
'We don't even know the true scale because of the destruction of almost all the laboratories and the killing of a lot of the medical staff, so to even get a small insight into what is happening in Gaza is extremely important,' Irfan said, quoted The Guardian.
The Israeli offensive in Gaza has now killed more than 61,000 people and injured over 158,000 since the war began in October 2023.
(with inputs from The Guardian)
