“Antimicrobial resistance is a global threat, both for public health and the economy,” says WHO expert Catharina van Weezenbeek. The WHO estimates that 1.3 million people die every year because antibiotics don’t work on their infections. She presented her new report on antibiotic resistance (AMR) in Geneva on Friday.
The EU health authority ECDC recently reported that more than 35,000 people die each year in the European Economic Area due to antibiotic resistance. The health consequences are comparable to those of the flu, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS combined, the agency said.
According to the current WHO report, between 2017 and 2021, the number of bloodstream infections caused by drug-resistant Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. and drug-resistant gonorrhea bacteria have increased by at least 15 percent worldwide. This may also be due to the frequent use of antibiotics in the context of the corona pandemic.
127 countries reported to the WHO database. Until now, China has not been one of them. Beijing was said to be in talks. According to the WHO, laboratories and diagnostic tools are lacking in many poorer countries. This puts pressure on doctors and clinics to use the latest and strongest resources without a clear diagnosis, even if that may not be necessary, says Van Weezenbeek.
Especially in hospitals, bacteria often circulate against which antibiotics hardly work. Experts speak of antibiotic resistance when patients do not respond to an antibiotic, ie when the disease-causing bacteria are not destroyed by the antibiotic. Pathogens are called multi-resistant, against which several or all available antibiotics no longer work.
(SDA)