Countries need to 'step up' their efforts against superbugs

Anne Gulland Global health security correspondent 29 April 2019 12:57pm BST England’s top doctor has urged governments around the world to “step up” efforts to revitalise the antibiotics

market. Professor Dame Sally Davies, England’s chief medical officer, warned of the looming health threat as a new United Nations report on anti-microbial resistance (AMR) was launched. It

warns that unless urgent action is taken AMR will have devastating consequences, including causing 10 million deaths a year by 2050 and damage to the global economy similar to the 2008-09

financial crisis. Tackling AMR will involve a multi-pronged effort but developing new antibiotics is a key component. Dame Sally, one of the authors of the UN report, said that the UK

government was the only one in the world intervening in the antibiotic market, for which no new class of drug has been developed in the last 40 years. Earlier this year health secretary Matt

Hancock announced that the NHS would pay for antibiotics according to how much they are worth to the NHS, rather than pay for them by volume. Predicted deaths from superbugs, 2014 to 2050 -

AMR Mr Hancock said the NHS would “pay upfront so pharmaceutical companies know that it’s worthwhile for them to invest the estimated £1 billion it costs to develop a new drug”. Dame Sally

told the _Telegraph_ that the UK government had already begun to take action. “The work is already ongoing. The drugs will be chosen quite soon and then it will take a couple of years to

accrue all the data. We will pay a price based on value agreed between the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and NHS England,” she said. She urged other governments, such as

the United States and Germany, to do more. “Governments have to step up. The UN also has a role in coordinating this,” she added. The UN Inter-Agency Coordinating Group (IACG) report warned

that unless action is taken common diseases such as respiratory and urinary tract infections will become untreatable. 'It was my only choice' | Man loses leg to superbug after knee

surgery The report calls for a joined-up approach across human and animal health, and says countries must act as a matter of urgency. It calls for incentives for the development of

antibiotics because of the high cost of drug development and poor returns for pharmaceutical companies. It says that incentives should be both financial and non-financial. The report also

calls for an immediate ban on the use of antibiotics on the World Health Organization’s list of critically important medicines as growth promoters in animals. It then says that the use of

other antibiotics as growth promoters should be phased out within five years. The co-ordinating group was set up in 2016 after world leaders at the UN General Assembly held a special session

focused on AMR and pledged to take action. The group will now be disbanded but the report urges the establishment of a scientific panel – similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change – to report back to the UN at regular intervals. Newsletter promotion - global health security - end of article Dr Haileyesus Getahun, a director of the IACG secretariat, said that

such a panel would provide the momentum for ongoing focus on the issue. “One of the recommendations of the report is to look for an independent panel of experts to come together and analyse

the evidence and look at what’s missing. In many areas – such as the impact of antibiotics on the environment – the evidence is inadequate,” he said. Dr Jeremy Farrar, director of Wellcome,

said urgent action was needed in the fight against AMR.  “Global leaders must turn warm words of support into tangible actions and carry this momentum forward to help us address this most

urgent of global health challenges. We cannot afford to let this report sit on a shelf whilst more and more people around the world die from superbugs. I applaud the work of the IACG, but

this is the start, not the end, of a process that has to happen now," he said.   _PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY BY LEARNING MORE ABOUT GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY _