Research after research, world's scientists renew their loud alerts against the high dangers of human-driven ‘superbugs' - bacterias and pathogens that no longer respond to antimicrobials, making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.
African countries must find a way of fighting Anti-Microbial Resistance in the healthcare system to avoid unnecessary deaths.
The
overuse and misuse of antimicrobial medicines and chemicals has become the main driver of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and drug-resistant infections that threaten human health and the global economy.
The cost of
infectious diseases is somewhere between staggering and incalculable. Around $8 trillion and 156 million life years were lost in 2016 alone. Throughout human history,
pestilences have wiped out more lives than famine and violence.
Antibiotics, like other antimicrobials, have become a threat to health rather than healing it. Why? Because their misuse and overuse have created such a strong resistance that they no longer respond to medicines, making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.
Much so that antimicrobial resistance is now considered among the top 10 global public threats facing humanity.
Antimicrobial resistance is quickly becoming a global crisis and risks reversing a century of progress in health. Some organisations have already geared up and are tackling the issue from its roots.
European Union officials and global health bodies have called for help for poorer countries as growing resistance to antibiotics threatens to become a ‘global health tragedy’ and jeopardises Sustainable Development Goals in some parts of the world.
New antibiotics that could treat tuberculosis may rapidly become ineffective, according to new research published by the Lancet ahead of World Tuberculosis Day.
The looming threat of a world where even minor infections are deadly has led governments to commit to collective action against antibiotic resistance at the UN General Assembly earlier this week.
Addressing antibiotic resistance will require a global political response similar to the way the world has reacted to climate change or HIV / AIDS, Sweden’s Minister of Public Health Gabriel Wikstrom, told IPS recently.
The growing crisis of antibiotic resistance is catching the attention of policy-makers, but not at a fast enough rate to tackle it. More diseases are affected by resistance, meaning the bacteria cannot be killed even if different drugs are used on some patients, who then succumb.