It is only the fourth time in United Nations history that a health issue has been discussed at the assembly, after HIV, noncommunicable diseases such as obesity, and Ebola.
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At the United Nations Headquarters in NY on Wednesday, the 193 countries of the UN will sign a declaration to tackle the increasing threat of antimicrobial resistance.
“Strengthening health systems is essential in addressing antimicrobial resistance”. These are the drugs which destroy harmful microbes.
Leaders from the G7 industrialized nations and G20 group of developing nations have also convened meetings and agreed that antimicrobial resistance is a global priority.
“There are now many infections that can not be treated at all”, said Dr. Vicky Enne, a clinical microbiologist at University College London who is working on new diagnostics to better target prescriptions.
“Drug-resistant infections are firmly on the global agenda, but now the real work begins”.
“It never goes on anyone’s death certificate … when someone has died of a nasty infection, the fact that it’s resistant either wasn’t known or hasn’t been talked about”, Tayler said. “200,000 newborn deaths are from infections that do not respond to available drugs”.
Common infections such as pneumonia, gonorrhea, and post-operative infections, as well as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, are becoming increasingly hard to treat because of antimicrobial resistance. Drug companies need to develop new antibiotics, he said, and researchers need to work on “novel” treatments and vaccines against major infections.
Measures suggested by ESCMID echo those of the United Nations and the industry, and include improving resistance surveillance, regulating the appropriate use of antimicrobial drugs in medicine and farming, educating the public, and providing incentives for R&D in medicines, diagnostics and other interventions.
Experts warn that everyone will be affected if nothing is done to address resistance as soon as possible.
And that’s threatening the lives of millions of people around the world – along with the global economic output.
For the moment, however, the people at most risk are those in the hospital, particularly those who are immunocompromised, such as chemotherapy patients, and are more likely to pick up one of these infections. Over two years, it produced a series of comprehensive reports that have been instrumental in shaping the dialogue about what could become the next global health crisis. Enne highlights Asia and Southern Europe as places where untreatable cases have been reported, but adds that data are insufficient on the current situation in African countries. Whether those commitments will translate into tangible action is yet to be seen.
Scientists have long known that bacteria have ways of thwarting the drugs created to kill them. In conclusion, they suggest that “modified use of antimicrobial agents and public health interventions, coupled with novel antimicrobial strategies, may help mitigate the effect of multidrug-resistant organisms in the future”.
Antimicrobial resistance is already present in almost every country.
Antibiotics, some of which are medically important to humans, continue to be fed to livestock to cure and stave off disease, or in some instances, they are used to promote weight gain in livestock without having to increase the animals’ food intake.
Enne says it’s not too late to reduce the amount of resistance if individuals and governments alike commit to tackling the problem. That, she said, must change with the creation of better incentives.
There has only been one new class of antibiotics since 1980.
What can individuals do?
The issue of antibiotic resistance isn’t new, and experts have long called for measures to combat it. But in recent decades, overuse and misuse of antibiotics have fueled a global spread of drug-resistant bugs, which include Clostridium difficile, or C-diff, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
I really would not want that to happen, and I am confident that we could avert it if we, as the global community, act now. “Hopefully, there will be willingness and investment from around the world”, she said. Failure to act may push that number to 10 million by 2050, the report said.
“We all share responsibility for the development of antimicrobial resistance”, said Monique Eloit, director general of the World Organization for Animal Health.
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If nothing is done, the last drugs standing will be knocked out of the game, and modern medicine will not be so modern.
