Credit CDC Vital Signs
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With tomorrow (Nov. 18th) marking Antibiotic Resistance Awareness Day in Europe, and kicking off the Get Smart About Antibiotics week in the United States, today The Lancet has published a special collection of reports and articles on the growing problems of antimicrobial resistance (note: Free registration required to access articles).
Antibiotic resistance—the need for global solutions
Published November 17, 2013
Executive summary
The causes of antibiotic resistance are complex and include human behaviour at many levels of society; the consequences affect everybody in the world. Similarities with climate change are evident. Many efforts have been made to describe the many different facets of antibiotic resistance and the interventions needed to meet the challenge. However, coordinated action is largely absent, especially at the political level, both nationally and internationally. Antibiotics paved the way for unprecedented medical and societal developments, and are today indispensible in all health systems. Achievements in modern medicine, such as major surgery, organ transplantation, treatment of preterm babies, and cancer chemotherapy, which we today take for granted, would not be possible without access to effective treatment for bacterial infections. Within just a few years, we might be faced with dire setbacks, medically, socially, and economically, unless real and unprecedented global coordinated actions are immediately taken. This Commission describes the global situation of antibiotic resistance, its major causes and consequences, and identify key areas in which action is urgently needed.
The Lancet Infectious Diseases Commission
Antibiotic resistance—the need for global solutions
Ramanan Laxminarayan, Adriano Duse, Chand Wattal, Anita K M Zaidi, Heiman F L Wertheim, Nithima Sumpradit, Erika Vlieghe, Gabriel Levy Hara, Ian M Gould, Herman Goossens, Christina Greko, Anthony D So, Maryam Bigdeli, Göran Tomson, Will Woodhouse, Eva Ombaka, Arturo Quizhpe Peralta, Farah Naz Qamar, Fatima Mir, Sam Kariuki, Zulfiqar A Bhutta, Anthony Coates, Richard Bergstrom, Gerard D Wright, Eric D Brown, Otto Cars
Related articles and comments in this issue also include:
Antibiotic resistance: global response needed
Simon J Howard, Mike Catchpole, John Watson, Sally C Davies
Global collaboration to encourage prudent antibiotic use
Sarah Earnshaw, Andrea Mendez, Dominique L Monnet, Lauri Hicks, Marilyn Cruickshank, Lynn Weekes, Howard Njoo, Stacie Ross
Antibiotic effectiveness and child survival
Mark Young, Mickey Chopra, Atieno Ojoo
Antibiotic resistance in Ghana
Martha Gyansa-Lutterodt
Light at the end of the tunnel of antibiotic development
Glenn S Tillotson
Antibiotic Action: helping deliver action plans and strategies
Laura JV Piddock
Perseverance, persistence, and the Chennai declaration
Abdul Ghafur
Related content published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases
Antibiotic resistance: long-term solutions require action now
Despite decades of warnings, the persistent overuse of antibiotics has led us to the precipice, and we now face an uncertain and potentially frightening future where previously curable infections may run rampant. A few recent warnings include:
ECDC: Antibiotic Resistance In the EU – 2012
UK CMO: Antimicrobial Resistance Poses `Catastrophic Threat’
MMWR Vital Signs: Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE)
CDC HAN Advisory: Increase In CRE Reports In The United States
PNAS: Abundant Antibiotic Resistance Genes In Chinese Swine Farms
For a more complete look at the complex issues of antibiotic resistance, and the dearth of new drugs on the horizon, I can think of no resource better than Maryn McKenna’s superb book (and recent winner of the 2013 June Roth Memorial Book Award, American Society of Journalists and Authors) Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA.
And while I dabble in writing about the issues of antibiotic resistance, undoubtedly the best coverage can be found on Maryn’s Superbug blog.
