LONDON: An increase in antibiotics that cause blood infections, including last-line antibiotics, has been detected in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, a report from the World Health Organization WHO based on data from 87 countries in 2020.
Antibiotic overuse and/or misuse of antibiotics has helped microbes to become resistant to many treatments, while the pipeline of alternative treatments being developed is very limited. High levels (more than 50%) of resistance have been reported in bacteria that often cause life-threatening blood infections in hospitals, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter spp, the authors of the report said on Friday.
These infections often require treatment with “last resort” antibiotics, drugs that are used when all other antibiotics have failed. Read more: WHO member countries agree to create first agreement to unify disease laws in early 2023.
WHO reveals that drug resistance in bacterial infections
About 8% of bloodstream infections caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae have become resistant to life-saving drugs, the latter of which are called carbapenems, according to the report.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) rates are still very high, but last-line antibiotics are only beginning to disappear, said Dr Carmem Pessoa-Silva, head of the World Antibiotic Resistance System. WHO, during a press conference. The message of hope, he said, is that “we have a very narrow window of opportunity … to respond to the threat.”
While efforts are being made to prevent the widespread use of antibiotics, the rate of new research is alarming.
The effort, cost and time required to get antibiotics approved and few limitations in investment have hindered drug manufacturers, because these treatments must be cheap and made to be used as possible to prevent drug withdrawal.
As a result, the lion’s share of antibiotic development takes place in a few laboratories in pharmaceutical companies, and many of their larger counterparts are focused on look at the lucrative markets.
Only a handful of big pharmaceutical companies remain in the space — including GSK ( GSK.L ) and Merck ( MRK.N ) — compared with more than 20 in the 1980s. A prominent global study released earlier this year found that 1.2 million people died in 2019 from drug-resistant bacteria, making AMR one of the leading causes of death worldwide, the most as HIV/AIDS or malaria.
Thomas Cueni, head of the International Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, said, “Political commitment (to anti-virus) must move quickly from desire to action.
The authors of the WHO report said that further research is needed to determine the reasons for the increase in AMR during the study period and to what extent it is related to the rapid use of antibiotics during the period.
AMR rates remain difficult to estimate due to inadequate testing and low laboratory capacity, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, the authors wrote.
