South Asia today: William Osler's world with antibiotics

In the past 5 years, The Lancet Global Health has reported seminal Articles about typhoid, typhus, tuberculosis, and antimicrobial resistance. This Comment will address these common problems in a different perspective over a longer time frame in south Asia. Typhoid and typhus fevers are the first tw...

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Main Author: Basnyat, B
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2018
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author Basnyat, B
author_facet Basnyat, B
author_sort Basnyat, B
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description In the past 5 years, The Lancet Global Health has reported seminal Articles about typhoid, typhus, tuberculosis, and antimicrobial resistance. This Comment will address these common problems in a different perspective over a longer time frame in south Asia. Typhoid and typhus fevers are the first two chapters in William Osler’s The Principles and Practice of Medicine, published in 1892.1 It is disheartening that well over a century later, south Asia continues to have a large burden of these diseases, despite antibiotics. Additionally, antimicrobial resistance—including antibiotic-resistant typhoid fever—is on the increase. For example, extensive drug-resistant typhoid fever in Pakistan’s Sindh province has been documented since November, 2016.2 The H58 strain of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi, which is ubiquitous in south Asia, became extensively drug resistant by acquiring a so-called highly promiscuous DNA molecule (ie, a plasmid) from another common bacterium such as Escherichia coli. It will be no surprise if the extensively drug-resistant typhoid organism (which currently responds to only azithromycin and not ceftriaxone among the commonly used, effective typhoid drugs) spreads to other parts of Pakistan, or indeed the rest of the subcontinent, making treatment of this common disease daunting.
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spelling oxford-uuid:857b6046-b9e6-44ba-be07-54af543158d42022-03-26T21:57:55ZSouth Asia today: William Osler's world with antibioticsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:857b6046-b9e6-44ba-be07-54af543158d4EnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordElsevier2018Basnyat, BIn the past 5 years, The Lancet Global Health has reported seminal Articles about typhoid, typhus, tuberculosis, and antimicrobial resistance. This Comment will address these common problems in a different perspective over a longer time frame in south Asia. Typhoid and typhus fevers are the first two chapters in William Osler’s The Principles and Practice of Medicine, published in 1892.1 It is disheartening that well over a century later, south Asia continues to have a large burden of these diseases, despite antibiotics. Additionally, antimicrobial resistance—including antibiotic-resistant typhoid fever—is on the increase. For example, extensive drug-resistant typhoid fever in Pakistan’s Sindh province has been documented since November, 2016.2 The H58 strain of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi, which is ubiquitous in south Asia, became extensively drug resistant by acquiring a so-called highly promiscuous DNA molecule (ie, a plasmid) from another common bacterium such as Escherichia coli. It will be no surprise if the extensively drug-resistant typhoid organism (which currently responds to only azithromycin and not ceftriaxone among the commonly used, effective typhoid drugs) spreads to other parts of Pakistan, or indeed the rest of the subcontinent, making treatment of this common disease daunting.
spellingShingle Basnyat, B
South Asia today: William Osler's world with antibiotics
title South Asia today: William Osler's world with antibiotics
title_full South Asia today: William Osler's world with antibiotics
title_fullStr South Asia today: William Osler's world with antibiotics
title_full_unstemmed South Asia today: William Osler's world with antibiotics
title_short South Asia today: William Osler's world with antibiotics
title_sort south asia today william osler s world with antibiotics
work_keys_str_mv AT basnyatb southasiatodaywilliamoslersworldwithantibiotics