Superbugs will kill someone every three seconds by 2050 unless the world acts now, a hugely influential report says.
The
global review sets out a plan for preventing medicine "being cast back
into the dark ages" that requires billions of dollars of investment.
It also calls for a revolution in the way antibiotics are used and a massive campaign to educate people.
The report has received a mixed response with some concerned that it does not go far enough.
The battle against infections that are resistant to drugs is one the world is losing rapidly and has been described as "as big a risk as terrorism".
The problem is that we are simply not developing enough new antibiotics and we are wasting the ones we have.
Since the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance started in mid-2014, more than one million people have died from such infections.
And
in that time doctors also discovered bacteria that can shrug off the
drug of last resort - colistin - leading to warnings that the world was
teetering on the cusp of a "post-antibiotic era".
The
review says the situation will get only worse with 10 million people
predicted to die every year from resistant infections by 2050.
And the financial cost to economies of drug
resistance will add up to $100 trillion (£70 trillion) by the mid-point
of the century.
The review recommends:
- An urgent and massive global awareness campaign as most people are ignorant of the risks
- Establishing a $2bn ($1.4bn) Global Innovation Fund for early stage research
- Improved access to clean water, sanitation and cleaner hospitals to prevent infections spreading
- Reduce the unnecessary vast antibiotic use in agriculture including a ban on those "highly critical" to human health
- Improved surveillance of the spread of drug resistance
- Paying companies $1bn (£0.7bn) for every new antibiotic discovered
- Financial incentives to develop new tests to prevent antibiotics being given when they will not work
- Promoting the use of vaccines and alternatives to drugs
The review said the economic case for action "was clear" and
could be paid for using a small cut of the current health budgets of
countries or through extra taxes on pharmaceutical companies not
investing in antibiotic research.
Lord Jim O'Neill, the economist
who led the global review, told the BBC: "We need to inform in different
ways, all over the world, why it's crucial we stop treating our
antibiotics like sweets.
"If we don't solve the problem we are heading to the dark ages, we will have a lot of people dying.
"We
have made some pretty challenging recommendations which require
everybody to get out of the comfort zone, because if we don't then we
aren't going to be able to solve this problem."
The Antibiotic Apocalypse
By James Gallagher, health editor, BBC News website
You need to install Flash Player to play this content.
A terrible future could be on the horizon, a future which
rips one of the greatest tools of medicine out of the hands of doctors.
A
simple cut to your finger could leave you fighting for your life. Luck
will play a bigger role in your future than any doctor could.
The most basic operations - getting an appendix removed or a hip replacement - could become deadly.
Cancer treatments and organ transplants could kill you. Childbirth could once again become a deadly moment in a woman's life.
It's a future without antibiotics.
This
might read like the plot of a science fiction novel - but there is
genuine fear that the world is heading into a post-antibiotic era.
Continue reading: The Antibiotic Apocalypse
Eight years of hell
It is hoped the measures will prevent more people going through experiences like Emily Morris from Milton Keynes.
She has regular urinary tract infections that do not respond to some antibiotics and could cause kidney damage or even death.
She says: "With every sting and every pain, my heart sinks at the thought of how many antibiotics I have left to use this time.
"I've had the struggle of living with a resistance to
antibiotics for nearly eight years of my life...there is a clear need
for new antibiotics."
Pharma challenge
Chancellor
George Osborne said: "Apart from the moral case for action, the
economic cost of failing to act is too great to contemplate.
"So I
am calling on other finance ministries to come together this year and,
working with industry leaders and medical experts, agree a common
approach."
Exactly how to encourage the drugs industry to make new
antibiotics has been a long running problem - there has not been a new
class of antibiotics discovered since the 1980s.
A new antibiotic
would be kept on the shelf for use in emergencies so a company could
never make back its huge research and development costs.
John Rex, from the antibiotics unit at AstraZeneca, said a new way of paying for drugs, as proposed in the report, was needed.
He
argued: "Such models should recognise antibiotics as the healthcare
equivalent of the fire extinguisher - they must be available on the wall
at all times and have value even when used only infrequently."
Lord O'Neill also focused criticism on agricultural
practices that use antibiotics to boost the growth of animals, rather
than to treat their infections.
In the US, 70% of antibiotics (sold by weight) are for use in animals.
Despite
being in animals, the practice risks spreading bacterial drug
resistance to human infections as was witnessed with colisitin
resistance last year.
He also focused his ire on a lack of tests for infections that see people pointlessly given antibiotics for viral infections.
"I
find it incredible that doctors must still prescribe antibiotics based
only on their immediate assessment of a patient's symptoms, just like
they used to when antibiotics first entered common use in the 1950s,"
Lord O'Neill said.
Bodies including the World Health Organization,
the Wellcome Trust medical charity and the UK's Royal Society all
praised the report.
Former Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said the findings were "definitely worth the urgent attention of global leaders".
Not enough
But
Dr Grania Brigden, from the charity Médecins Sans Frontières, said:
"This report is an important first step in addressing this broad market
failure, it does not go far enough."
MSF said infections resistant
to drugs were a threat to their work around the world from the
war-wounded in Jordan to newborns in Niger.
Dr Brigden added:
"The O'Neill report proposes considerable new funding to overcome the
failures of pharmaceutical research and development, but the proposals
do not necessarily ensure access to either existing tools or emerging
new products.
"Instead, in some cases, the report's solution is simply to subsidise higher prices rather than trying to overcome them."
Prof
Colin Garner, the chief executive of the Antibiotic Research UK
charity, said: "Looking at the problem globally has its drawbacks since
monies must be found from many different sources to enact the
recommendations, which takes time to do.
"It would have been good
to see recommendations for new UK funds or government action which would
tackle the current problem in the UK.
"It is fantastic that the O'Neill team have highlighted the challenges we face, but now we need to see action."
No comments:
Post a Comment