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The challenge of antimicrobial resistance in the Asia-Pacific: a pediatric perspective
Nguyen Xuan Huong1, Michelle Harrison2, Erena Kasahara3
1Phan Chau Trinh University, Vietnam.
Insights
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) infections pose a significant threat to children in the Asia Pacific. Addressing this requires better healthcare resources, diagnostics, and local strategies to curb antibiotic overuse.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric infectious diseases
- Global health
- Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) epidemiology
Background:
- The Asia Pacific region has 600 million children, facing a high burden of morbidity and mortality from infections linked to AMR.
- Limited and unevenly distributed data exist on the current epidemiology of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections in children within this region.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify key drivers, challenges, and opportunities for mitigating the burden of AMR in children across the Asia Pacific.
- To inform strategies for reducing infectious disease and antimicrobial use in pediatric populations.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on AMR epidemiology in children in the Asia Pacific.
- Analysis of healthcare system factors, antibiotic use patterns, and vaccination coverage.
- Identification of successful local interventions and implementation challenges.
Main Results:
- The region faces challenges including overcrowded healthcare facilities, inadequate microbiological resources, and widespread antibiotic misuse.
- Insufficient vaccine coverage exacerbates infectious disease burden and drives further antibiotic overuse in children.
- Limited published data hinder a comprehensive understanding of the AMR landscape in pediatric populations.
Conclusions:
- Reducing AMR burden necessitates enhanced healthcare resourcing, improved access to diagnostics, and multidisciplinary infection prevention and control strategies.
- Locally developed strategies have shown success in reducing antibiotic overuse and should be scaled across the region.
- Addressing AMR in children requires tailored, region-specific approaches focusing on stewardship and prevention.
Purpose Of Review:
The densely populated Asia Pacific region is home to 600 million children, and suffers from a significant burden of morbidity and mortality due to infections associated with antimicrobial resistance (AMR). We aimed to identify the drivers, challenges and potential opportunities to alter the burden of AMR within the region.
Recent Findings:
Despite the high AMR burden borne by the Asia Pacific region, there are limited (and geographically imbalanced) published data to delineate the contemporary epidemiology of serious multidrug-resistant bacterial infections in children. Furthermore, the region is impacted by overcrowded and poorly resourced healthcare facilities, insufficient microbiological resources, and widespread community and environmental antibiotic use leading to limited efficacy for frequently prescribed antibiotics. Vaccine coverage is also inadequate and inequitable, further driving the burden of infectious disease (and antibiotic overuse) in children.
Summary Of Implications:
There are many challenges in implementing antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention and control programs to reduce the excessive AMR disease burden in children across the Asia Pacific region, yet locally-driven strategies have successfully reduced antibiotic overuse in some settings, and should be replicated. Reducing the AMR disease burden will require improved healthcare resourcing, including better access to microbiological diagnosis, and multidisciplinary approaches to enhance infection prevention and antibiotic prescribing.
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