Ukrainian patients are increasingly denied rehabilitation in European hospitals due to fears of the spread of dangerous antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.
Olena Moshynets, a candidate of biological sciences and a senior researcher at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, told about this in an interview with Glavkom. According to her, such refusals are caused by European hospitals' fear of infections that cannot be cured by available means.
Moshinets explained that in European medical institutions, new antibiotics are used to treat resistant strains, but Ukrainian bacteria have already managed to become resistant even to such modern drugs, in particular to cefiderokol, one of the newest antibiotics. This forces European clinics to cut rehabilitation programs for Ukrainian soldiers and patients, as the risk of spreading dangerous bacteria is too high.
According to the microbiologist, Ukraine should immediately respond to this problem, despite the difficulties associated with the war and the economic crisis. Pharmaceutical companies do not register new antibiotics in Ukraine due to the high frequency of resistant infections, which creates a closed circle.
"The Ministry of Health accuses patients of uncontrolled use of antibiotics, but the problem lies not only in outpatient cases, but primarily in hospital infections," Moshinets emphasized. She noted that it is impossible to avoid hospital-acquired infections, but they can be minimized with the help of strict infection control, as is done in Western countries.
Meanwhile, the world press is worried about the development of the situation. The Sunday Times published an article under the headline "War in Ukraine reveals superbugs that mutated and are able to resist antibiotics." The article mentions a study by Lund University Professor of Clinical Bacteriology Christian Riesbeck, which included the analysis of samples from 141 patients who were treated in Ukrainian clinics. The results indicate serious threats associated with the spread of resistant infections.
