WHO warns of antibiotic resistance

WHO calls for responsible use of antibiotics and warns of resistance

08/04/2011

„Together, prevent and combat antibiotic resistance“ is the motto of today's World Health Day. The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that more and more pathogenic bacteria develop resistance to common antibiotics. The world is controlling „to a post-antibiotic age“ said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan.

The antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains represent a significant problem in everyday medical practice, because the treatment of patients significantly harsher, delayed or prevented the healing and increases the risk of spread. According to the WHO, around 25,000 people die every year as a result of infections with resistant bacteria in the European Union. However, the situation could worsen in the coming years if the use of antibiotics continues to be as carefree as ever, the WHO warned.

Spreading multidrug-resistant pathogens is a serious problem
Especially in nursing homes, hospitals and clinics, where relatively many sick people live together in a relatively small space, the spread of multidrug-resistant pathogens is a serious problem. More and more frequently, the media report infections with dangerous hospital germs, whereby the pathogens MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) are mostly meant. These antibiotic-resistant staphylococcal bacterial strains pose a significant health risk because, in the worst case scenario, life-threatening consequences such as pneumonia, sepsis, inflammation of the lining of the heart (endocarditis) or toxic shock syndrome (TSS) are at risk. According to an extrapolation by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), around 132,000 hospital patients in Germany suffered from MRSA infection in 2008. But not only the staphylococcal bacterial strains develop resistance to antibiotics, other bacteria such as the tuberculosis pathogens are increasingly immune to common antibiotics, the WHO said. WHO is calling for this year's World Health Day „a targeted approach to reducing antimicrobial resistance and strengthening preventive action at local, regional and national levels“.

Cause for antibiotic resistance: Flimsy, improper use
As a major cause of the growing spread of antibiotic-resistant pathogens, the WHO calls the frivolous, inappropriate, sometimes irrational use of antibiotics in humans and animals. If bacteria come into contact with antibiotics for an extended period of time, without the drugs being able to cause the pathogens to die off, some of them develop resistance to the antibiotics used. Therefore, WHO called on prescribers, veterinarians, pharmacists and the pharmaceutical industry to prescribe and use antibiotics responsibly. So it is urgent to ensure that the duration of application and dosage is sufficient to successfully kill the bacteria and to prevent a recurrence of the disease, the experts warn the WHO. At the same time, WHO massively criticized the careless and improper use of antibiotics. Some of these would even be used to treat diseases that are not successful in antibiotic therapy because they are viral infections rather than bacterial infections. As the name suggests, however, antibiotics are not used to fight viruses but bacteria.

Use of antibiotics in livestock
According to the WHO, the use of antibiotics in livestock is particularly critical. As a negative example, 14 out of 21 Eastern European countries where antibiotics are freely available can be named, which many farmers use to prevent their animals from being treated with antibiotics. Also in this way the bacteria come constantly in contact with antibiotics and can easily develop far-reaching resistances. „We have reached a critical point because resistance to existing antibiotics has reached unprecedented levels“, stressed the European WHO chief, Zsuzsanna Jakab and warned that „new antibiotics can not be provided fast enough“. Because it takes about ten years until a new antibiotic is developed, but the spread of multidrug-resistant pathogens is already a problem today. The WHO therefore called on individual states to better regulate the use of antibiotics while at the same time investing more money in the research and development of new antibiotics. So far, control the world „in the absence of urgent corrective and protective measures (...), to a post-antibiotic age in which many common infections are no longer cured and, once again, are killed unabated“, warned the Director-General of WHO, Margaret Chan.

Resistance gene NDM-1 detected in bacteria
The WHO health expert is particularly concerned about the resistance gene "NDM-1" (New Delhi Metallo Beta Lactamase) detected in bacteria in public water bodies in India. Pathogens that carry this section of DNA are immune to almost all antibiotics, including the so-called reserve antibiotics, thus rendering treatment of patients almost hopeless, according to scientists around Timothy Walsh of Cardiff University and journalists on the British television channel „Channel 4“ in the trade magazine „The Lancet Infectious Disease“. In the study of the water in New Delhi, the resistance gene was detected in more than a dozen bacterial strains, the experts said in the relevant journal. The results of the investigation illustrate that „worrying potential for widespread NDM-1 in the environment“, Mohd Shahid of the Indian Aligarh Muslim University commented on the publication. The spread of the resistance gene is by no means restricted to countries with rather poor hygienic standards, but also in Europe the NDM-1 bacteria have already been detected. However, according to estimates of the Robert Koch Institute in Germany, NDM-1 resistances are so far extremely rare.

DART - The German Antibiotic Resistance Strategy
In Germany, the Federal Ministry of Health, the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection as well as the Federal Ministry of Education and Research have already approved the „German antibiotic resistance strategy“ (DART) in order to reduce the resistances and avoid them in the future as far as possible. Measures to detect, prevent and combat antibiotic resistance in Germany are named, but a significant decline in the prevalence of multidrug-resistant pathogens has yet to be achieved. (Fp)

Read about:
The new super germ NDM-1
Resistant bacteria spread
Resistant bacteria in German hospitals

Picture: Margot Kessler