# 6997
The growing threat of antibiotic resistance has made a great many headlines over the years, but real progress in halting its spread has been disappointing.
New superbugs, virtually unheard of a decade ago (see MMWR Vital Signs: Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and NDM-1: A Matter Of Import) continue to emerge, and further erode our dwindling antibiotic arsenal.
Today, England’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dame Sally Davies released a a comprehensive overview of the dangers posed by growing antibiotic resistance, and issued a stark warning.
The following 3 minute video introduces this new report.
This from the UK’s Department of Health.
Antimicrobial resistance poses ‘catastrophic threat’, says Chief Medical Officer
March 11, 2013
Global action is needed to tackle the catastrophic threat of antimicrobial resistance, which in 20 years could see any one of us dying following minor surgery, England’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Dame Sally Davies said today.
The stark warning comes as the second volume of the Chief Medical Officer’s annual report is published, providing a comprehensive overview of the threat of antimicrobial resistance and infectious diseases.
Calling for politicians to treat the threat as seriously as MRSA, the report highlights a “discovery void” with few new antibiotics developed in the past two decades. It highlights that, while a new infectious disease has been discovered nearly every year over the past 30 years, there have been very few new antibiotics developed leaving our armoury nearly empty as diseases evolve and become resistant to existing drugs.
In addition to encouraging development of new drugs, the report highlights that looking after the current arsenal of antibiotics is equally important. This means using better hygiene measures to prevent infections, prescribing fewer antibiotics and making sure they are only prescribed when needed.
The Chief Medical Officer also states that more action is needed to tackle the next generation of healthcare associated infections, including new strains of pneumonia-causing klebsiella, that will be harder to treat.
Some 17 recommendations are made as part of the report, including:
- A call for antimicrobial resistance to be put on the national risk register and taken seriously by politicians at an international level, including the G8 and World Health Organization;
- Better surveillance data across the NHS and world wide to monitor the developing situation;
- More work carried out between the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries to preserve existing drugs and encourage the development of new antibiotics to fill the “discovery void” of the last 20 years; and
- Building on the success of the NHS in cutting MRSA rates, which have fallen by 80 per cent since a peak in cases in 2003 through better hygiene measures, which should be used when treating the next generation of healthcare associated infections such as new strains of harder-to-treat klebsiella.
Dame Sally Davies remarks are not dissimilar from those made nearly a year ago by World Health Organization Director General Margaret Chan, who painted a bleak picture of the future of antibiotic availability in her keynote address to the Conference on Combating Antimicrobial Resistance in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The D-G’s entire remarks may be viewed on the WHO’s website at Antimicrobial resistance in the European Union and the world, but I’ve excerpted a few choice statements below, after which you’ll find a link to the World Health Organization’s latest publication on antibiotic resistance.
Excerpts from D-G Chan’s March 14th, 2012 speech.
Antimicrobial resistance is on the rise in Europe, and elsewhere in the world. We are losing our first-line antimicrobials. Replacement treatments are more costly, more toxic, need much longer durations of treatment, and may require treatment in intensive care units.
<SNIP>
If current trends continue unabated, the future is easy to predict. Some experts say we are moving back to the pre-antibiotic era. No. This will be a post-antibiotic era. In terms of new replacement antibiotics, the pipeline is virtually dry, especially for gram-negative bacteria. The cupboard is nearly bare.
<SNIP>
A post-antibiotic era means, in effect, an end to modern medicine as we know it. Things as common as strep throat or a child’s scratched knee could once again kill.
The evolving threat of antimicrobial resistance - Options for action
Authors:
World Health Organization
And for a far more complete discussion of antimicrobial resistance issues, I can think of no better primer than Maryn McKenna’s book SUPERBUG: The Fatal Menace of MRSA. Maryn’s SUPERBUG Blog, continues to provide the best day-to-day coverage of these issues.
