•Antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines become ineffective and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat.
•The Union said as many as one in five cancer patients undergoing treatment are hospitalised due to infection or infectious disease such as pneumonia.
As Kenya joins the rest of the world in marking World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, an international union has warned of the imminent danger of drug resistance among individuals vulnerable to infections.
The world is marking the week on November 18-24 under the theme “Preventing Antimicrobial Resistance Together.”
The global campaign is celebrated annually to improve awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance and encourage best practices among the public, one health stakeholders and policymakers.
The Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) has emphasised the danger that drug resistance poses to individuals who are particularly vulnerable to infection.
These are people living with cancer with fatal infections representing a significant cause of death among cancer patients.
According to the UICC, there has been substantial progress in cancer care in the past decades, with key advances in surgery, radiotherapy and medicines, including newer immunotherapies.
“This progress is being undermined by the growing resistance of bacteria to the antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines designed to kill them,” the Union warned.
Antimicrobial resistance occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines.
This makes infections harder to treat and increases the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.
As a result of drug resistance, antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines become ineffective and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat.
Researchers estimated that AMR in bacteria caused an estimated 1.27 million deaths globally in 2019.
In Kenya, the annual incidence of cancer increased from 37,000 cases in 2012 to 47,887 in 2018.
Similarly, the annual mortality rose to 32,987 in 2018, from 28,500 in 2012.
The socioeconomic impact of cancer including the loss of productivity, cost of care and premature deaths continue to threaten the achievement of the nation's development goals and aspirations.
To address the challenge, the government has launched a Cancer Policy 2019-30.
The policy provides a framework to comprehensively address cancer control in Kenya.
This is done through the systematic implementation of evidence-based interventions for prevention, screening, timely diagnosis, treatment, survivorship and palliative care, financing, monitoring and research.
Breast cancer is the leading type of cancer in Kenya, with about 6,000 new cases every year.
People with cancer are more susceptible to infections due to cancer itself, and because surgery and cancer treatments such as bone marrow transplants, radiotherapy and chemotherapy put the immune system under immense pressure.
The Union said as many as one in five cancer patients undergoing treatment are hospitalised due to infection or infectious disease such as pneumonia.
One in 10 people living with cancer dies from severe sepsis – not from cancer itself.
Sepsis is a medical emergency caused by the body's response to an infection and can be life-threatening.
“Effective antibiotics are essential if we wish to see people with cancer complete their treatment successfully and survive. Many patients simply have to take them – and the world owes it to them to better manage our use of the drugs," Union for International Cancer Control President Prof. Jeff Dunn said.
"Avoid overprescription and use in farm animals, improve infection prevention and control, and support the research and development of new medicines. We need urgently to address this crisis, which could roll back progress made to date in cancer care."
Starting 2019, UICC set up a task force that combined experts from cancer and infectious diseases communities.
The task force selected areas in which to focus their efforts and make policy asks to address antimicrobial resistance.
The areas included the collection of reliable data on the impact of resistant infections on cancer patients; ensuring the availability, affordability and sustained access to quality-assured antimicrobial medicines and improved diagnostics capability; integrating AMR control into national cancer control plans with adequate funding.
At the World Cancer Congress, UICC presented a wide-ranging report on the impact of AMR on cancer care outcomes – and what can be done about it.
Produced by the AMR task force and written by more than 50 experts committed to researching the scale of AMR and finding workable solutions.
The report issues a series of recommendations, including improving public awareness, creating visibility and engaging the health workforce.
The other areas included addressing overprescription, ensuring access to diagnostics and treatment and encouraging the development of new medicines.
Designing a centralised and specialised surveillance system for people with cancer to predict and prevent the emergence of antibiotic resistance.
Strengthening infection prevention and control was the other area of focus.