Illnesses that would once have been easily managed are no longer responding to antibiotics, and the world’s poorest regions are being hit hardest
Her tiny body hooked up to machines twice her size, her mother standing vigil at the side of her cot, Yusra was in a struggle for life. The baby had severe sepsis, which meant her body had turned on itself – her immune system attacking her organs. Doctors tried different antibiotics but none of the drugs were working.
Yusra and her twin had been born two months premature, by caesarean section, in Woldia, a hill town in the Amhara region of northern Ethiopia where rebel and government forces are in violent conflict. Two years earlier, the hospital had been raided by a militia which stripped it of vital supplies. At six days old, Yusra’s sister died for want of a blood transfusion.
About Author
More Stories
Male mosquitoes to be genetically engineered to poison females with semen in Australian research
Bizarre Australian mole even more unusual than first thought, new research reveals
Memo to Trump: US telecoms is vulnerable to hackers. Please hang up and try again | John Naughton