Antibiotics Resistance A 'Catastrophic Threat'

The world is facing a "catastrophic" threat of antimicrobial resistance, which could see people dying following minor surgery in the space of twenty years, England’s Chief Medical Officer has warned.

The warning comes as the second volume of Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies's annual report is published.

Antimicrobial resistance occurs when organisms develop and can survive the treatments intended to destroy them.

The report highlights a "discovery void", with few new antibiotics having been developed in the past two decades.

It also states looking after the current arsenal of antibiotics is equally important. This means using better hygiene measures to prevent infections, prescribing fewer antibiotics and making sure they are only prescribed when needed.

Some 17 recommendations are made as part of the report, including:

- A call for antimicrobial resistance to be taken seriously by politicians at an international level, including the G8 and World Health Organisation

- Better surveillance data across the NHS and worldwide to monitor the developing situation.

- More work carried out to preserve existing drugs and encourage the development of new antibiotics

Professor Dame Sally Davies said: "If we don’t act now, any one of us could go into hospital in 20 years for minor surgery and die because of an ordinary infection that can’t be treated by antibiotics. And routine operations like hip replacements or organ transplants could be deadly because of the risk of infection.

"This is not just about government action. We need to encourage more innovation in the development of antibiotics – over the past two decades there has been a discovery void around antibiotics, meaning diseases have evolved faster than the drugs to treat them.

"In some areas, like cutting rates of drug resistant MRSA, the NHS is already making good progress so it’s important that we use that knowledge across the system and I hope my recommendations will prompt people to do that."

(IT)