The research, which is published in the journal PLOS ONE, found that countries with higher levels of corruption also often had less rigorous, less transparent processes and fewer controls which were effective in areas related to antibiotic resistance. Unsurprisingly, it was found that bacterial resistance levels were higher when a country's healthcare was mostly controlled by the private sector. However, an even more important aspect of antibiotic resistance is a country's quality of governance.
In Europe, the Scandinavian countries had the lowest levels of antibiotic resistance, which is unsurprising when their high quality of governance and high levels of education and universal health care are taken into consideration. Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Latvia, however, score poorly on all these and have the highest prevalence of antibiotic-resistant strains.
India is well known for its level of pervasive public and private sector corruption. It ranked 94 out of 176 countries in the Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International (2012) and the proliferation of deadly and untreatable antibiotic-resistant bacteria in also at epidemic proportions in India. Tellingly, the New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase-1, an enzyme that rendered bacteria resistant to a broad spectrum of antibiotics, takes its name from this country.
Less corrupt countries tend to have established institutional bodies and procedures which regulate antibiotic use, and this regulation, and the control of drugs seems to be integral to controlling the increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens.
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