Trends in antimicrobial resistance of bacterial pathogens in Harare, Zimbabwe, 2012–2017: a secondary dataset analysis

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most serious public health threats of the twenty-first century. The implementation of AMR surveillance in Zimbabwe is limited. However, data from a private laboratory in Harare revealed increasing resistance rates to common antibiotics like ampicillin (i.e., from 73.9% in 2011 to 74.6% in 2015). The increasing resistance rates indicate that Zimbabwe is affected by AMR. This study was done to determine the magnitude of AMR in Harare and determine the trends of AMR to first-line and to last-resort antibiotics and make recommendations to mitigate the problem.

There is a high burden of drug resistance to common antibiotics in Harare and an emergence of resistance to last-line antibiotics.