Misuse
of antibiotics poses a fast-rising threat to humanity while scarcity of the
same drugs sees millions die in developing world
Programmes to develop new antibiotics need
more investment.
Sunday 8 October 2017 01.00 EDTLast
modified on Sunday 8 October 2017 01.14 EDT
The UN general
assembly recognised drug-resistant infections last
year as one of the greatest threats facing humanity. And in May, G20 leaders
called for national action plans by the end of 2018 – plans set in train by the
World Health Organisation in 2015. But we have already lost momentum.
Commitments are the first step, but nothing will be achieved if we don’t
translate them into action.
Analysis by Wellcome and the UN Foundation shows, encouragingly,
that 151 of 195 countries are developing a plan. However, only half address the
threat across human and animal health and the environment, and only one in five
commit to reducing antibiotic use, improving hygiene and preserving antibiotics
of last resort. Most tellingly, only 5% are adequately funded and monitored by
the governments responsible for them.
And we still suffer from too few new antibiotics in
development. CARB-X is
a new partnership supporting 18 new potential treatments, but progress is still
slow. If we want our grandchildren to benefit from antibiotics, as we have, we
need more investment.
Meanwhile, the superbugs are progressing rapidly. Since the UN
declaration, they have killed about 700,000 people worldwide. In Nevada in
2016, a 70-year-old woman died after breaking her leg, which later became
infected with a superbug resistant to 26 antibiotics. In South Africa,
multidrug-resistant TB is spreading. In the UK, untreatable strains of gonorrhoea are on the rise.
Politicians and scientists have an urgent role to play but they
cannot solve the problem alone. Tackling drug-resistant infection is everyone’s
business. The threat transcends that of HIV, TB and cancer. To achieve real
progress, those already suffering from untreatable infections need a voice. So
far they have been too quiet.
That is why Wellcome, with the UN Foundation, UK, Thai and
Ghanaian governments, is hosting a global call to action in Berlin this week.
We have to make our response to this global threat move faster and with more
focus.
As we do so, we must also put our energy into the other great
challenge with regard to antibiotics: access.
Around 385,000 babies will be
born today across the globe. Tragically, almost half of them will die before
they reach 28 days of age. Those first weeks of life are incredibly fragile,
and infants born into the world’s poorest communities are at greatest risk –
although advances in global health have led, in the 25 years to 2015, to death
rates in neonates dropping from 5.1 million to 2.7 million a year.
Antibiotics could save so many more.
Globally, one in 10 newborns dies from pneumonia or sepsis, deaths preventable
with better access to existing antibiotics and better control of the spread of
drug-resistant infections.
In recent years, warnings of antibiotic resistance, improper and
overuse of antibiotics and the dire need for new treatments have become
familiar. But what has often been missing from this rhetoric is a focus on
improving access to antibiotics to all who need them. This complex mixture of
better prescribing twinned with better access is complicated and requires
nations to act in a way which fits their needs.
To stop superbugs undermining modern medicine, to prevent lives
being lost through lack of access to effective medicines, we must work
together. We cannot afford to delay.
Ed
Whiting is director of policy and chief of staff at the Wellcome Trust
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/08/superbugs-antibiotics-tuberculosis-health
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