Antibiotic Resistance Exerts Targeted Effects

When considering the alarming rise of antibiotic resistance in developing countries, it is crucial to first acknowledge and tackle the factors that make citizens of these countries significantly more likely to contract and succumb to infectious diseases. Because the issue of antibiotic resistance is inextricably linked with socioeconomic level, affluent nations must assist developing countries in increasing the quality of life and healthcare of their citizens. Once such efforts are in place, it is imperative that affluent nations accelerate global monitoring of antibiotic usage and resistance to generate a more accurate and holistic understanding of these issues.

In order to tackle the roots of the infectious diseases that ultimately yield antibiotic resistance, it is imperative that developed nations assist the citizens of developing countries in the procuring fundamental right to hygienic living conditions. Individuals in poverty are denied access to basic resources such as sanitation products and adequate nutrition, which increases their susceptibility to infection and augments the rate at which resistance may spread (McEvoy, 2020). Spearheading a wide range of efforts to improve hygiene in developing countries would eventually decrease infection rates and the corresponding infection rates. Simultaneously, they would combat the roots of the structural violence that renders individuals in poverty less able to tend to basic needs (Farmer, 2003). For instance, dumping of untreated sewage and lack of access to sanitation products in India ultimately contribute to the problem of emerging antibiotic resistance (Harris, 2014). On a more microscopic scale, however, they detract from the lives of individual citizens who are more susceptible to infection due to weakened immune systems and diminished access to life-saving drugs (Okeke, 2020; Farmer, 2003). If infectious diseases are not targeted at their roots, they will continue to manifest disproportionately in poorer nations and thereby yield an increasing need for antibiotic cures.

Profit interests within the antibiotic industry reduce poorer individuals' access to critical drugs. Health disparities that result from inadequate access to medication reaffirm the fact that "as long as medical services are sold as commodities, they will remain available only to those who can purchase them" (Farmer et al., 2006). Doctors take the Hippocratic oath vowing act to the best of their ability to save the lives of their patients. Yet sadly and somewhat ironically, the healthcare system denies patients medications that could save lives on the basis of cost. For instance, prisoners in Russia who exhibit multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB) are routinely given cheaper, ineffective primary drugs rather than more expensive secondary drugs that have a much higher chance of alleviating their infections (Farmer, 2003). Analogously, withholding pricey medical advancements from the citizens of developing countries implies a "differential valuation of human life" that will inevitably hurt all of mankind (Farmer 129).

Tackling the issues caused by infectious diseases will prove impossible if we do not work to collect sufficient data on drug use and resistance. Once systems are in place to provide citizens in developing countries with endurable living conditions and access to critical medications, developed countries must increase surveillance and data collection efforts on a global scale. Affluent countries may assist the governments of developing nations in monitoring antibiotic usage and resistance. Developing nations could take advantage of existing surveillance efforts such as the initiation of the USD Fleming Fund, the Global Health Security. Existing programs such as these could serve as feasible starting points for expansion of surveillance efforts to developing countries. (O'Neill, 2016). In addition to enhancing knowledge of the current state of antibiotic resistance, surveillance efforts in developing nations could decrease the vulnerability of citizens to ineffective or counterfeit medication (Okeke, 2020). Because individuals in poverty are unable to afford high quality healthcare, they often resort to purchasing cheap drugs, self-medicating, and consuming only partial doses of drugs (Okeke, 2020). Weak medication harms not only individual patients but society as a whole by allowing resistant bacteria to survive and proliferate. Fortified surveillance could eliminate counterfeit drugs from corrupt markets and discourage consumption of inappropriate doses, thereby safeguarding communities against infections and, eventually, resistance.

Reducing antimicrobial resistance in developing countries begins with the prevention and containment of infectious disease as well as with understanding the level of resistance globally. Current efforts to limit antibiotic usage and produce new drugs will certainly be important. Before embarking on such missions, however, mankind must first comprehend the true progress of antibiotic resistance and remedy the structural inequities that allow infectious diseases to disproportionately target inhabitants of correctional facilities and of developing countries.

References

Farmer, Paul E. "A Plague on All our Houses?: Resurgent Tuberculosis Inside Russia's Prisons."

Pathologies of Power: Structural Violence and the Assault on Human Rights. University of California Press, 2003, pp. 115-133.

Farmer, Paul E., et al. “Structural Violence and Clinical Medicine.” PLoS Medicine, vol. 3, no.

10, 24 Oct. 2006, pp. 1686–1691., doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0030449.

Harris, Gardiner. “'Superbugs' Kill India's Babies and Pose an Overseas Threat.” The New York

Times, 3 Dec. 2014.

McEvoy, Megan. “Week 6: Social and Ethical View of Antibiotic Resistance.” Society &

Genetics 5, 16 April 2020, University of California, Los Angeles. Lecture.

Okeke Iruka N. "Poverty and Root Causes of Resistance in Developing Countries."

Antimicrobial Resistance in Developing Countries. Springer, 5 September 2020, pp 27-35.

O'Neill, Jim. Tackling Drug-Resistant Infections Globally: Final Reports and Recommendations.

The Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, May 2016, pp 1-7.