The World Is Running Out of Much Needed New Antibiotics

Posters: Misuse of antibiotics and risks. Credit: WHOBy Baher KamalROME, Oct 4 2017 (IPS)The world is running out of new antibiotics to combat the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance, a new specialised report warns ahead of this year’s World Antibiotic Awareness Week, adding that most of the drugs currently in the clinical pipeline are modifications of existing classes of antibiotics and are only short-term solutions. The latest World Health Organization (WHO) report on this issue “Antibacterial agents in clinical development – an analysis of the antibacterial clinical development pipeline, including tuberculosis” found very few potential treatment options for those antibiotic-resistant infections identified by the organisation as posing the “greatest threat to health,” including drug-resistant tuberculosis which kills around 250,000 people each year.Fact sheet on antibiotic resistance • Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today. • Antibiotic resistance can affect anyone, of any age, in any country. • Antibiotic resistance occurs naturally, but misuse of antibiotics in humans and animals is accelerating the process. • A growing number of infections – such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, and gonorrhoea – are becoming harder to treat as the antibiotics used to treat them become less effective. • Antibiotic resistance leads to longer hospital stays, higher medical costs and increase...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Featured Global Headlines Health Human Rights TerraViva United Nations Source Type: news