Extremely resistant bacteria are spreading among war-scarred patients in overcrowded Ukrainian hospitals. Researchers from, among other places, Sweden have discovered this.
– There is always a risk that it will spill over to the rest of Europe, says Professor Kristian Riesbeck.
The discovery of the resistant bacteria in Ukrainian hospitals surprised the researchers.
– I have never seen anything like it in Europe. We expected to find multi-resistant bacteria, but not that it would be this bad, says Kristian Riesbeck, professor of clinical bacteriology at Lund University, who describes the findings as “scary”.
Together with colleagues at Lund University, the Eucast laboratory in Växjö and in Ukraine, he has investigated how resistant bacteria from patients in Ukrainian hospitals were to antibiotics.
Mean death sentence
The samples analyzed came from 131 adults hospitalized for war injuries – severe burns, shrapnel wounds and fractures – and from eight newborn babies with pneumonia.
Several of the bacteria were resistant to so-called broad-spectrum antibiotics, which work against many types of bacteria, but also against new types of antibiotics that are not yet on the market.
Most worrying is, according to Riesbeck, that six percent of the bacteria, of the species Klebsiella pneumoniae, were resistant to all the antibiotics tested. In the past, there have been single described cases from China, but they have not been found to the same extent as now.
– If the bacteria enter the bloodstream and cause blood poisoning, it can mean a death sentence, because there are no antibiotics left to treat with, says Kristian Riesbeck.
Overburdened hospitals
Almost ten percent of the samples contained bacteria that were resistant to the antibiotic colistin, which otherwise usually serves as a last resort when other drugs don’t work.
Kristian Riesbeck emphasizes that the patients were not infected when they were admitted to hospital, but were affected when they were treated for their injuries. The problem is that the hospitals are overloaded because many Ukrainian hospitals have been bombed.
– They do not have the opportunity to isolate the infected or close wards if they bring in dangerous bacteria, which can therefore spread. The healthcare staff also find it difficult to maintain hygiene routines, even if they are aware of the risks. I feel terribly sorry for them.