WHO urges taking greater measures to combat increase in antibiotic resistance

Following a recent article in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, in which researchers identified a new gene that may enable some bacteria to be highly resistant to almost all antibiotics, the World Health Organization (WHO) has urged all countries to be prepared to implement hospital infection-control measures to limit the spread of multi-drug resistant strains and to reinforce national policy on prudent use of antibiotics, reducing the generation of antibiotic resistant bacteria and antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Antibiotic resistance is a growing global health problem of concern to both health care practitioners, patients and others worldwide.

The Lancet article has drawn greater attention to the issue of AMR, and, in particular, has raised awareness of infections caused by multi-drug resistant bacteria, according to a WHO press release.

Resistant to most antibiotics

In their multicenter study, Karthikeyan K. Kumarasamy, MPhil, of the University of Madras, Chennai, India, and several colleagues found 44 isolates with New Delhi metallo-ß-lactamase 1 (NDM-1) in Chennai, 26 NDM-1 isolates in Haryana, India, 37 NDM-1 isolates in the United Kingdom and 73 NDM-1 isolates in other sites in India and Pakistan.

According to the study abstract, Kumarasamy and colleagues found most of the NDM-1 isolates among Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae and they proved highly resistant to all antibiotics used except for tigecycline and colistin, they reported.

“The potential of NDM-1 to be a worldwide public health problem is great, and coordinated international surveillance is needed,” the researchers concluded.

Take action

In its August 20 press release, WHO called on consumers, prescribers and dispensers, hospital and laboratory managers, patients and visitor to health care facilities, as well as national governments, the pharmaceutical industry, professional societies, and international agencies to be alert to the problem of AMR and take appropriate action.

WHO recommended that governments focus their control and prevention efforts on the following four main areas:

surveillance for AMR;
rational antibiotic use, including education of health care workers and the public in the appropriate use of antibiotics;
introducing or enforcing legislation related to stopping the selling or antibiotics without prescription; and
strict adherence to infection prevention and control measures, include the use of hand-washing measures, particularly in health care facilities.

Specialists at the medical university in Graz, Austria, identified two cases of the NDM-1 gene that alters bacteria and enables them to become superbugs in two patients there, as reported by the Austrian health ministry in a recent Associated Press article.

Reference:
Kumarasamy KK. Lancet Infect Dis. 2010. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(10)70143-2.

Follow OrthoSuperSite.com on Twitter