OFWs at high risk of drug-resistant infection - report

Filipino overseas workers who frequently take antibiotics are at high risk of contracting a drug-resistant bacterial infection, online news Khaleej Times reported on Sunday quoting a study from Hong Kong University.

The report said that the study found that more than half of the 64 non-Chinese cases of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococus aureus (MRSA) infections in the Hong Kong community last year were Filipino domestic helpers.

Khaleej Times said that MRSA is a bacterial infection, which is resistant to some of the strongest antibiotics. Usually it infects wounds but can cause complications such as pneumonia or blood poisoning.

It quoted Ho Pak-leung, professor of microbiology at the University of Hong Kong, as saying that the high infection rate among the Filipinos could be blamed on high use of antibiotics.

The report said that of the 155 recorded cases, 91 involved Chinese locals, 33 Filipinos, five Americans and Indians and two each from Nepal, Australia, Denmark, and England.

There are some 120,000 Filipinos in the former British colony of Hong Kong, who mostly work as domestic helpers in the city of 6.9 million, according to Khaleej Times. - GMANews.TV

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