Risk of antibiotic resistance in children under five years of age! Research reveals the truth:

News Topical, Digital Desk : People rarely think about how dangerous it can be to use antibiotics without consulting a doctor. This is the reason why many people take antibiotics on their own when they have a cold and cough without consulting a doctor. But this can prove to be very harmful for health, especially for children. Let's find out how.

Severely malnourished children under the age of five may be at a significantly increased risk of developing antimicrobial resistant bacteria. This concern has been raised after a study by researchers at the Ionia Oxford Institute for Antimicrobial Research (IOI).

Risk of fatal infection due to malnutrition

Globally, 45 million children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition, scientists said. These children are also at a higher risk for developing life-threatening infections such as tuberculosis or sepsis due to a weakened immune system.

Antibiotic resistance is on the rise in children

The researchers analysed more than 3,000 rectal swabs from 1,371 children being treated for acute malnutrition between 2016 and 2017. In the study, the researchers found that nearly 70 per cent of the children did not have carbapenem-resistant bacteria when they were admitted but did have it at the time of discharge. Carbapenems are a class of last-resort antibiotics used when other antibiotics fail to treat an infection.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, showed that 76 percent of the children were found to have bacteria with the extended-spectrum beta-lactamase gene, which has the ability to break down many commonly used antibiotics. Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) is an enzyme made by some bacteria.

Researchers said one in four children (25 per cent) carried bacteria with carbapenem genes, which confer resistance to some of the most powerful and last-line antibiotics. "While our study focused on one treatment centre in Niger, this situation is likely to occur in many other hospitals around the world," said lead author Dr Curtie Sands. Antibiotics are life-saving drugs that are becoming ineffective due to antimicrobial resistance, she said.