Janet Ogundepo Medical researchers in antimicrobial resistance have said that pregnant women exposed to livestock feed and agricultural products containing colistin, an antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections, have a higher risk of giving birth to babies with antibiotic resistance. Their statement is coming on the heels of a recent study by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, revealed that babies in Nigeria were born with colistin-resistant bacteria in their system. Colistin is a potent antibiotic and currently the only available antibiotic effective in treating multi-drug resistant bacteria, including the ones causing pneumonia.
Gavi and the researchers further noted that although colistin was not usually prescribed in Nigerian clinics and hospitals, it was found in imported livestock feeds, stating that pregnant women who work in poultry farms and animal husbandry were inadvertently exposed to the bacteria. Consequently, the strain is transferred to their babies, who could also be exposed to the bacteria either from the hospital or from their community. Gavi stated that the study, conducted between 2015 and 2017, sampled 4,907 newborn babies and their mothers in three hospitals in Kano and Abuja.
The study then revealed that one per cent of the samples had genes conferring colistin resistance across 41 mothers and eight babies, noting that while the percentage may seem low, it was alarming that babies were carrying colistin-resistant bacteria within their first week of life. .