Antimicrobial resistance in Madagascar: a review of the current situation and challenges

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing public health threat worldwide occurring in a wide range of pathogenic bacteria. It is encouraging that governments of countries around the world are beginning to pay attention to the issue of AMR that serves to undermine the future of modern medicine. However, each country solution approaches to this issue will differ in terms of magnitude and response capacity. Madagascar is a low-income country and one of the poorest countries in the world with poor environmental hygiene practices and easy availability of antimicrobial drugs without medical prescription. These particular contexts certainly influence the spread of multi-drug resistant bacteria. This review presents reported data on AMR from 2001 to 2018 in Madagascar among the World Health Organization (WHO) priority human pathogens, and determined the scope and magnitude of the AMR problems in the particular context of this low-income country, which could help in formulating effective response strategies for control of AMRs in Madagascar.

Key words: Antimicrobials, Madagascar, Multi-drug resistance, Prevalence