By Our Correspondent
Healthcare practitioners at Nanyuki Teaching and Referral Hospital (NTRH) have sounded the alarm on the shocking rise of antimicrobial resistance in humans and animals, as the world observes antimicrobial awareness week.
Dr. Edna Kubai, a pharmacist at NTRH, says antimicrobial resistance—a situation where disease-causing microorganisms are becoming resistant to antibiotics—has reached alarming levels, going by the number of patients presenting with drug-resistant infections.
“The shocking result is that we are struggling to match the pace of restocking the effective drugs as the resistance is even outpacing supply plans,” says Dr. Kubai.
“Antibiotics development is a lengthy and very costly affair. As we stand, the discovery of new drugs has slowed down significantly over the past few decades, and this should be a concern for everyone to exercise caution when handling drugs.”