Antibiotic, or antimicrobial, resistance is a global public health threat and occurs when disease-causing germs evolve and develop a resistance to the very drugs designed to kill them, rendering these drugs ineffective
Age, sex and location could be important in assessing the antibiotic resistance of a bacterial infection, according to a new study published in PLOS Medicine.
Antibiotic, or antimicrobial, resistance is a global public health threat and occurs when disease-causing germs evolve and develop a resistance to the very drugs designed to kill them, rendering these drugs ineffective.
The research, led by those at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, analysed data on bloodstream infections of nearly 9.5 lakh individuals across 29 European countries. The data was collected through routine surveillance between 2015 and 2019.
A person’s age and sex are correlated with the chance that they have a bloodstream infection caused by a bacterium that is resistant to antibiotics,
Distinct patterns in the prevalence of resistance by age were observed throughout Europe but varied across bacterial species. For most but not all bacteria, peaks in resistance were seen at the youngest and oldest ages. There were other important differences between sexes; in general, men had a higher risk of antimicrobial resistance than women.
Dr Gwen Knight, Associate Professor and co-Director of the AMR Centre at LSHTM, said:
“Our findings highlight important gaps in our knowledge of the spread and selection of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and may help us understand why the epidemiology has been difficult to explain through known patterns of antibiotic exposure and healthcare contact.
“They also suggest there may be value in considering interventions to reduce antimicrobial resistance burden that take into account important variations in antimicrobial resistance prevalence with age and sex.
“In order for us to address this growing threat to public health, we now need data from a wider range of sources to determine the contribution that cultural versus natural history differences have in driving these patterns globally and the role that they play in the increasing rates of antimicrobial resistance being seen.”