Antibiotic resistance: an impending crisis

A new report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) — its first to look at antimicrobial resistance, including antibiotic resistance, globally — reveals that this serious threat is no longer a prediction for the future, it is happening right now in every region of the world and has the potential to affect anyone, of any age, in any country. Antibiotic resistance — when bacteria change so antibiotics no longer work in people who need them to treat infections — is now a major threat to public health.
Effective antibiotics have been one of the pillars allowing us to live longer, live healthier, and benefit from modern medicine. Unless we take significant actions to improve efforts to prevent infections and also change how we produce, prescribe and use antibiotics, the world will lose more and more of these global public health goods and the implications will be devastating.
The report, "Antimicrobial resistance: global report on surveillance", notes that resistance is occurring across many different infectious agents but the report focuses on antibiotic resistance in seven different bacteria responsible for common, serious diseases such as bloodstream infections (sepsis), diarrhoea, pneumonia, urinary tract infections and gonorrhoea. The results are cause for high concern, documenting resistance to antibiotics, especially “last resort” antibiotics, in all regions of the world.
Resistance to the treatment of last resort for life-threatening infections caused by a common intestinal bacteria, Klebsiella pneumoniae — carbapenem antibiotics — has spread to all regions of the world. K. pneumoniae is a major cause of hospital-acquired infections such as pneumonia, bloodstream infections, infections in newborns and intensive-care unit patients. Treatment failure to the last resort of treatment for gonorrhoea — third generation cephalosporins — has been confirmed in many places. More than 1 million people are infected with gonorrhoea around the world every day.
Antibiotic resistance causes people to be sick for longer and increases the risk of death. Resistance also increases the cost of health care with lengthier stays in hospital and more intensive care required.
People can help tackle resistance by:
• using antibiotics only when prescribed by a doctor.
• Completing the full prescription, even if they feel better.
• Never sharing antibiotics with others or using leftover prescriptions.
Health workers and pharmacists can help tackle resistance by:
• Enhancing infection prevention and control.
• Only prescribing and dispensing antibiotics when they are truly needed.
• Prescribing and dispensing the right antibiotic(s) to treat the illness.
Policymakers can help tackle resistance by:
• Strengthening resistance  tracking and laboratory capacity.
• Regulating and promoting appropriate use of medicines.
Policymakers and industry can help tackle resistance by:
• Fostering innovation and research and development of new tools.
• Promoting cooperation and information sharing among all stakeholders.
Without urgent, coordinated action by many stakeholders, the world is headed for a post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries which have been treatable for decades can once again kill. The time to act is now.

Source: World Health Organisation