UN raises alarm on antibiotic resistance

Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary general

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/173380.html

The UN secretary general has warned against antimicrobial resistance, stressing the need for the 'urgent' addressing of the issue through concerted international efforts.

In his message for the World Health Day on 7 April, Ban Ki-moon warned of the increase in microbial resistance to antibiotics and other antimicrobial medications across the globe.

The UN chief praised the health improvements caused by the discovery of the antibiotics and the availability of antibacterial medications for poorer communities over the past two decades, which have helped fighting major killers, including TB, HIV, malaria, pneumonia and diarrheal diseases.

However, he expressed great concern about threats caused to these improvements due to the emergence of drug-resistant organisms.

“Antimicrobial resistance is a natural phenomenon, but it is exacerbated by the widespread use, overuse and misuse of medicines, and the spread of resistant infections in healthcare and agriculture. Trade, travel and migration are increasing the spread of these organisms across communities and borders,” ban said.

“Some of the medicines that saved our parents and grandparents are already unusable today. Drug resistance imposes huge costs on health systems and is taking a growing - and unnecessary - toll in lives, threatening to roll back much of the progress we have made towards the health-related Millennium Development Goals,” he added.

Moreover, the current problem may undermine the gains of other modern medicines and technologies used to fight non-communicable diseases. Perhaps most disturbing is that the pipeline for new antimicrobial medicines to replace those that have been lost has nearly dried up, Ban further warned.

“The World Health Organization has selected "Combat Antimicrobial Resistance: No Action Today, No Cure Tomorrow" as the theme for this year's World Health Day.

“Today, WHO is calling for action to raise accountability and halt the spread of drug resistance through a six-point policy package: joint planning; surveillance; drug regulation; rational use of medicines; infection prevention and control; innovation and research,” the UN chief urged, adding “Governments, industry and all stakeholders must answer the call. Global health and untold millions of lives are at risk.”

Third World children, 'lab rats' for US

Uganda's poor children

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/139852.html

Children of third world countries and nations in transition have become 'laboratory rats' for the US' clinical tests for new drugs, an Indian newspaper says.

Under US' 1997 legislation called the Pediatric Exclusivity Provision, intended to speed up development of new drugs for American kids, the trials were carried out in countries such as Uganda and India, The Times of India reported.

Although the trials carried out in such countries, using their children as laboratory rats, it is not clear if okayed medicines might ever become available there and whether they will be affordable for them.

Dr. Sara Pasquali, a pediatrician at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, whose findings appear in the journal Pediatrics, said that the situation raises ethical concerns.

“The trend that we describe brings up some scientific and ethical problems,” she said.

“Oftentimes, access to a study may be the only access to medical care a family has,” Pasquali added.

Among the 174 such trials the researchers examined, drugs against infectious diseases were most likely to be tested in the developing world, closely followed by heart, allergy and arthritis medications.

“We are now using vulnerable people in vulnerable countries as drug laboratories,” Dr Marcia Angell, another researcher said. “It is all about dollars and cents.”

New superbug blight on Britain

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=138323&sectionid=3510210

A new superbug resistant to even the most powerful antibiotics has travelled back to the UK in patients who underwent surgery in India and Pakistan, experts warn.

According to a study published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, the multi-drug resistant bacteria has been tracked in patients returning to the UK after recieving cosmetic surgery, cancer treatment and transplants in Asia.

The NDM-1- (New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1) making bacteria was found attached to strains such as Klebsiella pneumonia and E-Coli, making them highly resistant to nearly all antibiotics, even carbapenems -- the most powerful class of antibiotics.

"The fear would be that it gets into a strain of bacteria that is very good at being transmitted between patients," said David Livermore director of antibiotic resistance monitoring at the UK Health Protection Agency and a study co-author.

He also warned that NDM-1 may also attach to antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains, making them harder to eliminate through conventional antibiotic treatment.

While only 50 cases have been diagnosed with the condition in the UK, officials fear it may spread worldwide as similar cases have been reported in the US, Canada, Australia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Netherlands.

Patient-to-patient transmission has been spotted in UK hospitals, raising fears of the rapid spread of the bacteria that would make the condition almost impossible to treat.

Scientists believe close international monitoring and surveillance as well as new drugs are needed to fight the disease and preventing it from becoming a global health concern.