This archive report was first published on 13 May 2020.
May 13, 2020 - A growing concern in Kenya and around the world is the rise of drug resistance, which occurs when micro-organisms or disease-causing bugs change in ways that render medications used to cure infections ineffective.
According to the World Health Organisation, drug resistance is a major concern because a resistant infection can easily spread and kill people, leading to huge costs for individuals and society.
Studies have shown that an increasing number of bacterial infections in Kenya, such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, and gonorrhoea, are becoming harder and sometimes impossible to treat as antibiotics become less effective.
However, a new study published in the Nature Journal suggests that childhood vaccination may be a powerful tool in the fight against antibiotic resistance in low- and middle-income countries like Kenya.
The research, led by scientists from the University of California (UC) Berkeley, found that vaccines guard against bacterial infections, minimising the use of antibiotics and reducing the chances of the drugs becoming ineffective against bacterial infections.
"Right now, almost all countries have developed or are in the process of developing national action plans to address the crisis that antibiotic resistance poses to their health systems, but there is very little evidence addressing which interventions are effective," said Joseph Lewnard, an assistant professor of epidemiology at UC Berkeley, and lead author of the study.
"By providing hard numbers on the substantial impact that has been achieved with just these two vaccines alone, our work demonstrates that vaccines should be among the interventions that are strongly prioritised," he added.
