In 2035, will all bacteria be multidrug-resistant? No

Institutional Factors Associated with Infection Prevention and Control Practices Globally during the Infectious Pandemics in Resource-Limited Settings

Healthcare-associated infections lead to considerable morbidity, a prolonged hospital stay, antibiotic resistance, long-term disability, mortality and increased healthcare costs. Based on the literature, some individual and socio-demographic factors including knowledge, age and length of service or work experience, gender and type of profession influence compliance with infection prevention and control procedures. In addition, organizational culture, which refers to the assumptions, values, and norms shared among colleagues, can influence an individual's thinking and healthcare workers' behavior, either positively or negatively. Infection control practices based on the perspective of patients, hospital management and healthcare workers may help develop a better understanding of the factors influencing compliance with infection prevention and control policies and guidelines.

Resistance proportions for eight priority antibiotic-bacterium combinations in OECD, EU/EEA and G20 countries 2000 to 2030: a modelling study

Background

Antimicrobial resistance is widely considered an urgent global health issue due to associated mortality and disability, societal and healthcare costs.

Aim

To estimate the past, current and projected future proportion of infections resistant to treatment for eight priority antibiotic-bacterium combinations from 2000 to 2030 for 52 countries.

Methods

We collated data from a variety of sources including ResistanceMap and World Bank. Feature selection algorithms and multiple imputation were used to produce a complete historical dataset. Forecasts were derived from an ensemble of three models: exponential smoothing, linear regression and random forest. The latter two were informed by projections of antibiotic consumption, out-of-pocket medical spending, populations aged 64 years and older and under 15 years and real gross domestic product. We incorporated three types of uncertainty, producing 150 estimates for each country-antibiotic-bacterium-year.

Results

Average resistance proportions across antibiotic-bacterium combinations could grow moderately from 17% to 18% within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; growth in 64% of uncertainty sets), from 18% to 19% in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA; growth in 87% of uncertainty sets) and from 29% to 31% in Group of Twenty (G20) countries (growth in 62% of uncertainty sets) between 2015 and 2030. There is broad heterogeneity in levels and rates of change across countries and antibiotic-bacterium combinations from 2000 to 2030.

Conclusion

If current trends continue, resistance proportions are projected to marginally increase in the coming years. The estimates indicate there is significant heterogeneity in resistance proportions across countries and antibiotic-bacterium combinations.