Focus on tackling the antibiotic crisis

According to a report launched by economist Jim O’Neill, in December 2014, drug-resistant infections will cost the world 10 million extra deaths a year and up to $100 trillion by 2050, if the global increase is not stopped. Jim O’Neill leads the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), which was established by the UK Prime Minister David Cameron in July 2014.

The first paper to be published, as part of the review,1 outlined the sobering and escalating human impact of AMR between now and 2050, as well as its potentially enormous global financial cost. Drug-resistant infections already kill hundreds of thousands of people globally every year, and the trend is growing. The importance of effective antimicrobial drugs cannot be overplayed. E. coli, for example, is a widespread bacterial infection in rich and poor countries. It is a major cause of diarrhoea in children and can be lethal: it kills up to half of patients who get it as a bloodstream infection where antibiotics are not used.

Today, the class of antibiotics called ‘carbapenems’ are reserved as a last resort against E. Coli, and are used only in cases when the other antibiotics have become ineffective due to resistance. In an alarming development, doctors are now having to use more and more carbapenems and a strain of carbapenem resistant E. Colihas emerged, which is spreading around the world. For patients infected with this bacteria, there are now no effective drugs available for doctors to use.