FT experts linked the emergence of new infections with the conflict in Ukraine

The number of antibiotic-resistant infections has been on the rise in Europe since at least 2014. In recent months, when wounded Ukrainians began to be evacuated to European countries, such cases have become more frequent.

In European countries, against the backdrop of military operations in Ukraine , the number of infections resistant to antibiotics is growing, the Financial Times reports, citing data from researchers and experts.

According to the publication, antibiotic resistance in Western Europe was recorded back in 2014, when the armed conflict began in Donbass; According to various scientific works, a significant portion of those infected were Ukrainians. In recent months, as Ukrainian citizens - military and civilian - have been evacuated to other European countries and hospitalized, the number of such infections has continued to rise.

The World HEALTH Organization lists antimicrobial resistance as one of the global health threats facing humanity. WHO cites misuse and overuse of antimicrobial drugs as the main causes of antimicrobial resistance; lack of people's access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene; unsatisfactory infection prevention in health care facilities; limited access to quality medicines, vaccines and diagnostics.

As an example, the newspaper cites a case described in August by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Doctors at an American military hospital in Germany, examining a wounded Ukrainian soldier, discovered that he was resistant to almost all available antibiotics. This episode shows that the consequences of military actions on health care “spread far beyond Ukraine,” writes the FT.

People could have contracted such infectious diseases while staying in overburdened hospitals in Ukraine or in countries that have taken in hundreds of thousands of refugees.

In the context of military conflicts, it becomes more difficult to take measures to combat the spread of antibiotic resistance in infections, the publication notes. In particular, due to damage to hospital infrastructure, tests to determine appropriate antibiotics may not be available ; this increases the likelihood of indiscriminate drug use, which can develop drug resistance in pathogens.

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The risk of infections becoming resistant to antimicrobial drugs is growing worldwide, the FT notes. Most countries have developed national action plans to combat the phenomenon, but scientists , such as a team of researchers from the University of Edinburgh led by Jay Patel, note discrepancies and significant differences in estimates of mortality associated with drug resistance in these countries.

The think tank Center for Global Development is calling for an agreement between the pharmaceutical industry, governments and organizations in this field. “This is not a panacea, but we must change the antimicrobial market. And we need accountability. AMR is not only a political problem, but also a technical one,” says center representative Javier Guzman.

Last summer, Ukrainian FORBES wrote that people in the country spent up to 7 billion UAH (almost 19 billion rubles) a year on antibiotics . From August 1, 2023, the Ukrainian Ministry of Health introduced a new form - electronic prescriptions for antibiotics. Before this, de jure antibiotics could be bought in pharmacies only with a paper prescription, and in fact, without one at all, the publication wrote.