Antimicrobial resistance in Africa: a systematic review

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Abstract

Background

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is widely acknowledged as a global problem, yet in many parts of the world its magnitude is still not well understood. This review, using a public health focused approach, aimed to understand and describe the current status of AMR in Africa in relation to common causes of infections and drugs recommended in WHO treatment guidelines.

Methods

PubMed, EMBASE and other relevant databases were searched for recent articles (2013–2016) in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. Article retrieval and screening were done using a structured search string and strict inclusion/exclusion criteria. Median and interquartile ranges of percent resistance were calculated for each antibiotic-bacterium combination.

Results

AMR data was not available for 42.6% of the countries in the African continent. A total of 144 articles were included in the final analysis. 13 Gram negative and 5 Gram positive bacteria were tested against 37 different antibiotics. Penicillin resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae was reported in 14/144studies (median resistance (MR): 26.7%). Further 18/53 (34.0%) of Haemophilus influenza isolates were resistant to amoxicillin. MR of Escherichia coli to amoxicillin, trimethoprim and gentamicin was 88.1%, 80.7% and 29.8% respectively. Ciprofloxacin resistance in Salmonella Typhi was rare. No documented ceftriaxone resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae was reported, while the MR for quinolone was 37.5%. Carbapenem resistance was common in Acinetobacter spp. and Pseudomonas aeruginosa but uncommon in Enterobacteriaceae.

Conclusion

Our review highlights three important findings. First, recent AMR data is not available for more than 40% of the countries. Second, the level of resistance to commonly prescribed antibiotics was significant. Third, the quality of microbiological data is of serious concern. Our findings underline that to conserve our current arsenal of antibiotics it is imperative to address the gaps in AMR diagnostic standardization and reporting and use available information to optimize treatment guidelines.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12879-017-2713-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Global Fluoroquinolone Resistance Epidemiology and Implictions for Clinical Use

Axel Dalhoff (2012)

This paper on the fluoroquinolone resistance epidemiology stratifies the data according to the different prescription patterns by either primary or tertiary caregivers and by indication. Global surveillance studies demonstrate that fluoroquinolone resistance rates increased in the past years in almost all bacterial species except S. pneumoniae and H. influenzae, causing community-acquired respiratory tract infections. However, 10 to 30% of these isolates harbored first-step mutations conferring low level fluoroquinolone resistance. Fluoroquinolone resistance increased in Enterobacteriaceae causing community acquired or healthcare associated urinary tract infections and intraabdominal infections, exceeding 50% in some parts of the world, particularly in Asia. One to two-thirds of Enterobacteriaceae producing extended spectrum β-lactamases were fluoroquinolone resistant too. Furthermore, fluoroquinolones select for methicillin resistance in Staphylococci. Neisseria gonorrhoeae acquired fluoroquinolone resistance rapidly; actual resistance rates are highly variable and can be as high as almost 100%, particularly in Asia, whereas resistance rates in Europe and North America range from 30% in established sexual networks. In general, the continued increase in fluoroquinolone resistance affects patient management and necessitates changes in some guidelines, for example, treatment of urinary tract, intra-abdominal, skin and skin structure infections, and traveller's diarrhea, or even precludes the use in indications like sexually transmitted diseases and enteric fever.

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At the beginning of the 21st century, antimicrobial resistance is common, has developed against every class of antimicrobial drug, and appears to be spreading into new clinical niches. We describe determinants likely to influence the future epidemiology and health impact of antimicrobial-resistant infections. Understanding these factors will ultimately optimize preventive strategies for an unpredictable future.

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Antimicrobial drug resistance among clinically relevant bacterial isolates in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review.

Frank N. Van Leeuwen, Stije J. Leopold, Hayalnesh Tarekegn … (2014)

Little is known about the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) amongst bacterial pathogens in sub-Saharan Africa (sSA), despite calls for continent-wide surveillance to inform empirical treatment guidelines. We searched PubMed and additional databases for susceptibility data of key pathogens for surveillance, published between 1990 and 2013. Extracted data were standardized to a prevalence of resistance in populations of isolates and reported by clinical syndrome, microorganism, relevant antimicrobial drugs and region. We identified 2005 publications, of which 190 were analysed. Studies predominantly originated from east sSA (61%), were hospital based (60%), were from an urban setting (73%) and reported on isolates from patients with a febrile illness (42%). Quality procedures for susceptibility testing were described in <50% of studies. Median prevalence (MP) of resistance to chloramphenicol in Enterobacteriaceae, isolated from patients with a febrile illness, ranged between 31.0% and 94.2%, whilst MP of resistance to third-generation cephalosporins ranged between 0.0% and 46.5%. MP of resistance to nalidixic acid in Salmonella enterica Typhi ranged between 15.4% and 43.2%. The limited number of studies providing prevalence data on AMR in Gram-positive pathogens or in pathogens isolated from patients with a respiratory tract infection, meningitis, urinary tract infection or hospital-acquired infection suggested high prevalence of resistance to chloramphenicol, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and tetracycline and low prevalence to third-generation cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones. Our results indicate high prevalence of AMR in clinical bacterial isolates to antimicrobial drugs commonly used in sSA. Enhanced approaches for AMR surveillance are needed to support empirical therapy in sSA. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Birkneh Tilahun Tadesse:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4005-8605

+251911551807 , birknehtilahun@gmail.com

Elizabeth A. Ashley: liz@tropmedres.ac

Stefano Ongarello: Stefano.Ongarello@finddx.org

Joshua Havumaki: Joshua.Havumaki@finddx.org

Miranga Wijegoonewardena: Miranga@finddx.org

Iveth J. González: Iveth.Gonzalez@finddx.org

Sabine Dittrich: Sabine.Dittrich@finddx.org

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Infect Dis

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Infect. Dis

Title: BMC Infectious Diseases

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1471-2334

Publication date (Electronic): 11 September 2017

Publication date PMC-release: 11 September 2017

Publication date Collection: 2017

Volume: 17

Electronic Location Identifier: 616

Affiliations

[1 ]ISNI 0000 0001 1507 3147, GRID grid.452485.a, Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), ; Campus Biotech Building B2 Level 0, 9 Chemin des Mines, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland

[2 ]ISNI 0000 0000 8953 2273, GRID grid.192268.6, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Pediatrics, , Hawassa University, ; Hawassa, Ethiopia

[3 ]GRID grid.463322.2, Special Programme for Research & Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), World Health Organization, ; Avenue Appia 20, 1211, 27 Geneva, Switzerland

[4 ]Myanmar-Oxford Clinical Research Unit (MOCRU), Yangon, Myanmar

Author information

Birkneh Tilahun Tadesse http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4005-8605

Article

Publisher ID: 2713

DOI: 10.1186/s12879-017-2713-1

PMC ID: 5594539

PubMed ID: 28893183

SO-VID: a70310b2-3c61-42df-b9db-634c37dd2b6b

License:

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.