|
 U.S. scientists said the infection in a 49-year-old Pennsylvania
woman "heralds the emergence of truly pan-drug resistant bacteria"
because it could not be controlled even by colistin, an antibiotic
reserved for "nightmare" bugs.
In Japan, British Prime Minister David Cameron said leading
countries needed to tackle resistance by reducing the use of
antibiotics and rewarding drug companies for developing new
medicines.
"In too many cases antibiotics have stopped working. That means
people are dying of simple infections or conditions like TB
(tuberculosis), tetanus, sepsis, infections that should not mean a
death sentence," he told a news conference at a summit in Japan.
"If we do nothing about this there will be a cumulative hit to the
world economy of $100 trillion and it is potentially the end of
modern medicine as we know it."
A review commissioned by the British government and published last
week said a reward of between $1 billion and $1.5 billion should be
paid for any successful new antimicrobial medicine brought to
market.
If the problem is not brought under control, antimicrobial
resistance could kill an extra 10 million people a year by 2050, the
review warned.
The U.S. case is a further wake-up call for the world, although it
is not the first time that colistin resistance has appeared.
Medics around were alarmed last year by the discovery in China of a
new gene that makes bacteria highly resistant to the medicine. Since
then, the deadly strain has also been detected in Europe and Canada.
The development of colistin resistance is linked to the drug's
widespread use in livestock and the European Medicines Agency on
Thursday called for a 65 percent cut in the amount of the medicine
used in farming.
[to top of second column] |
"The more we look at drug resistance, the more concerned we are,"
Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, told reporters in Washington.
"The medicine cabinet is empty for some patients. It is the end of
the road for antibiotics unless we act urgently."
The problem is aggravated by drugmakers' reluctance to invest in
developing new antibiotics, preferring to focus on more profitable
disease areas, although recently there has been some increase in
investment, prompted by the superbug threat.
In January, 83 companies, including Pfizer, Merck & Co, Johnson &
Johnson and GlaxoSmithKline, signed a declaration urging governments
to support work on new antibiotics.
(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; Writing by Elizabeth Piper; Editing
by Louise Ireland)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
