Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamases (ESBLs) Gene Mutations in Kuwait: How Much Do We Know? Not Much!

Antibiotic resistance is a major problem worldwide, especially with the overuse and misuse of antibiotics. This makes it more challenging to treat patients infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, with more costs on the health systems. This review article describes extended-spectrum β-lactam antibiotics as the mostly used antibacterial agents, and how bacteria developed beta-lactamases (ESBLs) to resist these antibiotics. The review focuses more on the problem of ESBLs in Kuwait to uncover which ESBLs are present and what ESBLs gene mutations have been found in this country. Literature review, surprisingly, revealed a limited number of studies in Kuwait on ESBLs gene mutations, published over more than 25 years. The results showed that Kuwait has an alarming number of bacterial strains with ESBLs gene mutations, but the results showed different mutations in different bacterial strains from different types of specimens collected from different hospitals in Kuwait. The data from these studies were scattered and not linked or analysed together to highlight the big picture of the problem of ESBLs in Kuwait. This review article alerts that the amount of research on ESBLs in Kuwait is not up to the expectations of a country like Kuwait, which has high-standard research facilities. Baring in mind that the geographic area of Kuwait is relatively small, the authors of this paper think that there might be more β-lactam bacteria spreading in Kuwait, which need to be explored, and that more research and more collaboration is needed among researchers in Kuwait to address this risky situation.