“I have a bacteria – bacteria are bad,” said Abdallah Ali Ibrahim matter-of-factly, leaning against the crutches that support his right and only leg. “Whenever I go outside, I have to put on a gown and gloves, and sterilise my hands,” he adds from his isolation room at a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Iraq’s Mosul. It wasn’t until January that Abdallah was referred to MSF’s special facility in eastern Mosul, where doctors diagnosed him with a bacterial infection resistant to antibiotics. In the Middle East, antibiotics are easily available over-the-counter and therefore over-used, allowing bacteria to develop a tolerance. Another spent 30 years bouncing from hospital to hospital because of a wound sustained in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.

Source: The Express Tribune March 07, 2019 07:02 UTC