Antibiotic resistance in the Middle East and Southern Asia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Despite global surveillance efforts, antibiotic resistance (ABR) is difficult to address in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In the absence of country-wide ABR surveillance data, peer-reviewed literature is the next most significant source of publicly available ABR data. Médecins Sans Frontières conducted this review in hopes of using the pooled findings to inform treatment choices in the studied countries where sufficient local ABR data are unavailable.

A systematic literature review reporting ABR rates for six infection sites in nine countries in the Middle East and Southern Asia was conducted. PubMed was used to identify literature published between January 2012 and August 2022. A meta-analysis of the included studies (n = 694) was conducted, of which 224 are reviewed in this paper. The JBI critical appraisal tool was used to evaluate risk of bias for included studies.

This paper focuses on sepsis, burns and wound infections, specifically, with the largest number of papers describing data from Iran, Türkiye and Pakistan. High (>30%) resistance to recommended first-line antibiotics was found. Gram-negative resistance to ceftriaxone, aminoglycosides and carbapenems was high in burn-related infections; colistin resistance among Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates in Pakistan was alarmingly high (81%).

High-quality data on ABR in LMIC settings remain difficult to obtain. While peer-reviewed literature is a source of publicly available ABR data, it is of inconsistent quality; the field also lacks agreed reporting standards, limiting the capacity to pool findings. Nonetheless, high resistance to first-line antibiotics underscores the need for improved localized surveillance and stewardship.