A Report launched On Sep-20-2017 by WHO shows a serious lack of New antibiotics under development to combat the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance.
Antimicrobial resistance is the ability of microorganism,such as bacteria or viruses,to prevent antibiotics from working against it.
This means that standard treatments become ineffective,infections persist and may spread to others.
In its report, WHO says that the majority medication presently within the pipeline are modifications of existing classes of antibiotics and are only short solutions.
Researchers found few potential treatment choices for antibiotic-resistant infections, together with drug-resistant tuberculosis that kills around 250,000 individuals annually.
In addition to multidrug-resistant TB, WHO has identified 12 categories of priority pathogens – some of them inflicting common infections like pneumonia or urinary tract infections – that are progressively resistant to existing antibiotics and desperately in need of new treatments.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of WHO, says that this can be a world emergency.
“There is an urgent need for more investment in research and;development for antibiotic-resistant infections including TB,otherwise we will be forced back to a time when people feared common infections and risked their lives from minor surgery.”
Dr Suzanne Hill of WHO says that pharmaceutical companies and researchers need to focus on new antibiotics against certain types of extremely serious infections.
WHO, along side the drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, has launched a partnership to counter the threat.
South Africa, Germany and also the uk, among others, have pledged over €56 million for this work.
WHO has warned that the new antibiotics won’t be enough to combat the threat of antimicrobial resistance, adding it’ll work with countries and partners to boost infection prevention.