WHO warns about threat of drug resistance

“WHO calls for urgent action to preserve power of antibiotics and make new ones,” The Guardian reports. The World Health Organization (WHO), has published a report highlighting the growing global threat of drug resistance. Expert opinions on the implications of the WHO report have been informative, such as the quote, on BBC News, from Dr Jennifer Cohn, medical director of Médecins sans Frontières' Access Campaign, who said that this report should be “a wake-up call to governments to introduce incentives for industry to develop new, affordable antibiotics that do not rely [on] patents and high prices and are adapted to the needs of developing countries”.   What is the basis for these current reports? The WHO has produced a report entitled “Antimicrobial resistance: Global report on surveillance 2014”. This is based on information it was able to obtain on general antimicrobial resistance gathered from 129 of the 194 member states. It is also based on a focused collection of data from 114 member states for nine antibacterial drugs of public health importance which are used in the following seven specific infections when other antibiotics haven’t worked: Escherichia coli, (E. coli) which can cause diarrhoea, urinary tract infections and blood stream infections Klebsiella pneumonia, which can cause pneumonia, urinary tract infections and blood stream infections Staphylococcus aureus, a cause of wound infections and blood stream infections Stre...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medication QA articles Source Type: news