Superbugs ‘linked to 80pc of deaths in Bangladesh ICUs’

Antimicrobial resistant superbugs, according to the Telegraph, could be responsible for up to 80 per cent of deaths in Bangladesh’s biggest intensive care unit (ICU).

Quoting professor Sayedur Rahman, chairman of the department of pharmacology at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medial University (BSMMU), the British media outlet, Telegraph said, “Out of approximately 900 patients admitted to the unit in 2018, 400 died.”

Physician Sayedur was quoted as saying, “Out of those deaths around 80 per cent were attributed to a bacterial or fungal infection that was resistant to antibiotics.”

The Telegraph report also said Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are seen as drivers of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) because of poor adherence to antibiotic treatment, the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics for growth promotion in farm animals, self-medication and illegal over-the-counter access to antibiotics.

“Most patients [that die] come from public ICUs where there is strictly no AMR surveillance. And this is the generator of antibacterial resistance,” Rahman was also quoted to have said.

It added that a 2015 study published in the European Journal of Scientific Research found that over one-third of patients in Bangladesh surveyed were given antibiotics by people without authorisation to do so.