Antibiotic resistance warnings stepped up
Friday November 18th, 2011
A fresh drive to restrict the use of antibiotics and prevent them losing their potency, was launched today.
A UK government watchdog warned too many people expect antibiotics for common viral conditions, such as colds and flu, which cannot be treated by the drugs.
And a British academic warned the lack of new antibiotics, coupled with increasing resistance to the drugs, could result in a raft of untreatable infections.
Professor Laura Piddock, of the School of Immunity and Infection at the University of Birmingham, UK, spoke out on European Antibiotic Awareness Day.
The UK Department of Health published new guidance on the use of antibiotics in hospitals yesterday.
Professor Piddock said urgent work needed to be done to tackle the potential problem.
Her caveat comes in a paper that is published Online First in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, which is timed to coincide with European Antibiotics Awareness Day tomorrow (Friday November 18) and today’s (November 17) launch of the EU Commission's five-year Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).
Prof Piddock, who is also President of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC), said despite the fact that the public is reliant on antibiotics, resistance is growing and there is no sense of urgency to find new drugs.
Many medical procedures depend on antibiotics to keep infections at bay, but even relatively simple procedures are being complicated by antibiotic resistant infections.
“When patients are denied treatment with a new cancer drug because of its expense, there is public outrage despite the possibility of extending life by only a few weeks,” explained Prof Piddock.
“Antibiotics are not perceived as essential to health or the practice of medicine, despite such agents saving lives so that individuals can live for many years after infection.”
WHO announced antibiotic resistance as one of the three biggest threats to health years ago, but little has been done, said Prof Piddock.
But the BSAC has launched Antibiotic Action to join organisations across the globe together to enable a concerted effort that will push antibiotics to the top of health agendas.
“Until a global alliance for antibiotic drug discovery and development is formed, pharmaceutical companies need to recognise that many expensive medicines in their portfolio and in development might by useless if patients succumb to fatal infections,” she said.
“Therefore, their return on investment for products to treat cancer or chronic diseases depends, in part, on effective treatment of infections. This fact alone should be an incentive for pharmaceutical companies to continue or re-enter antibiotic development.”
* Too many people expect their doctor to prescribe them antibiotics for common viral conditions, the UK Health Protection Agency said today.
A survey by the agency found that one in five people had visited their GP recently for a cough, cold, flu or sore throat - and that half of these expected antibiotics.
Tags: Europe | Pharmaceuticals | Respiratory | UK News
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