Int. J. One Health Vol.8 Article-5
Review Article
International Journal of One Health, 8(1): 43-47
https://doi.org/10.14202/IJOH.2022.43-47
Armed conflict and the proliferation of antimicrobial resistance: The situation in war-ravaged Afghanistan
2. Department of Para Clinic, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Helmand University, 3902 Peace Watt, Lashkar Gah, Helmand, Afghanistan.
3. Department of Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Tikrit University, Iraq.
4. Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, 840212, Sultan Abubakar Road, City Campus Complex, Sokoto State, Nigeria.
Background and Aim: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) constitutes a serious impediment to the attainment of the World Health Organization's Sustainable Development Goals, which seek to ensure and promote healthy living among humans and animals. Studies have identified the vulnerability of conflict-affected populations to exposure to antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. Resource-limited countries like Afghanistan have suffered for long periods from armed conflicts, and this situation is exacerbated by the already poor or dilapidated healthcare delivery services. The country has suffered human and economic losses due to antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections driven by the prolonged war, as well as a limited number of antimicrobials and frequent under dosage. Most reports point to the overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics as the main reason for building up resistant strains. There is a need for more efforts toward identifying the major contributors and enlightening the public on the importance of AMR. This review aimed to provide a critical appraisal regarding the current situation of AMR in Afghanistan.
Keywords: Afghanistan, antimicrobial resistance, armed conflict, hospital-acquired infection, public health.
Received: 25-09-2021 Accepted: 25-02-2022 Published online: 21-04-2022
Corresponding author: Bashiru Garba E-mail: garba.bashiru@udusok.edu.ng
DOI: 10.14202/IJOH.2022.43-47
Copyright: Ahmadzai, et al. This article is an open access article 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.