The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville said antimicrobial resistance is an emerging threat in the region.

He discussed this during a press conference on Saturday after a Caribbean Public Health Agency conference.

The World Health Organisation says the resistance occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines, making infections harder to treat while increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness, and death.

“Antimicrobial resistance is very much a concern for us here in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas particularly coming out of COVID-19 where antibiotics have been used excessively as a mechanism to ensure that nothing was missed, even though COVID is a viral illness,” Dr Darville said. “And so that is a new threat, not only to The Bahamas, but I think to the entire region.”

Dr Darville said officials are planning an aggressive public relations campaign with The Bahamas Customs Department to stop the illegal importation of antibiotics, which are prescribed outside the standard medical process.

Asked about the prevalence of resistance in The Bahamas, he said: “We’ve had cases at our tertiary health care facilities that do not respond to the normal antimicrobial regime for that particular illness. And when we bring out the big guns, we have issues as well. And there’s only so much you have, there is only so many arsenals that you can bring out into treatment of infectious diseases and bacterial diseases.”

Dr Darville said there is little that can be done to treat a patient’s illness in some cases because the organisms do not respond to the antibiotics.

He also said a cross-ministerial approach to addressing the matter alongside the Ministry of Agriculture is essential.

Professor Minerva Thame, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of the West Indies, said it is also a health concern in Jamaica.

“I work in the special care nursery, and we are seeing more and more of these multi-resistant organisms. And it is giving us great concern because you can go so high or no more. And then what do you do? So, most of the ICUs, because of the amount of use of antibiotics which ICUs have overall, whether it be special care or the adult ICUs, we are seeing these multi-drug resistant organisms that are showing their face,” said Professor Thame.