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"The Gravest Threat to Modern Medicine" - Radical Change Needed

on Friday, 16 November 2018.

Anti-microbial resistance (AMR) is where previously treatable infections become immune to antibiotics. It has been estimated that AMR may currently kill around 5,000 people a year in England. This number is set to rise.

Unless there is drastic action, the predictions are that by 2050 there will be 10 million deaths in the world per year due to AMR. Some people have called this the gravest threat to modern medicine.

The UK's Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies, has called for a radical change so infection and resistance to antibiotics are included as the causes of death on death certificates. She said the problem of growing resistance to antibiotics was currently being hidden as hospitals were not admitting when people are dying from superbugs. There was concern that admitting to AMR playing a role would look bad for the National Health Service.

Infections caused by AMR is also currently costing the NHS £180m a year, and this number is also expected to increase.

The biggest cause of the problem is over prescribing of antibiotics, in addition to the pharma industry not having invented any new class of antibiotic since the 1980s - largely due to there being a lack of financial incentive.

The Government set a target of reducing inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics by 50% by 2020. There has been some progress towards this, with human consumption of antibiotics in England down by 9% since 2012. However, Professor Michael Moore has told the Health and Social Care Select Committee that doctors are not following official guidance to help prevent inappropriate prescribing in cases of suspected pneumonia, despite the guidance having been introduced three years ago.

Lord O'Neill led a review into AMR under David Cameron's Government. He told the Select Committee that although the problem was a "top five" issue in that government, he was not aware of any current senior ministers dealing with the issue.

Also speaking to the Select Committee, Dame Sally urged countries to work together to create financial incentives to develop new antibiotics, as the financial rewards were not enough.

Meanwhile, there is a ray of sunshine for this issue. Scientists at Chongqing University in China are hoping they may be on the road to a solution. They have discovered the fungal compound Albomycin, which acts like a Trojan horse by tricking bacteria into eating it then killing them from within. It has been particularly effective against the hospital superbug, MRSA. This is early stages in the fight, though.

Comment

It is all very well having innovative medicines and other treatments, but if people end up dying due to superbugs, these other advances would be in vain. It is crucial that dealing with antimicrobial resistance is back at the top of the agenda and in the news again, just as Lord O'Neill is advocating.


If you have any thoughts on this issue, please share them with Paul Gershlick in our Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences team on 01923 919 320.