” Antibiotic resistance is increasing, and we are rapidly running out of treatment options.” Who expresses herself this way, Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, deputy director general of Health Systems and Innovation of the World Health Organization (WHO), is exhaustive on this matter. “If we leave all this solely in the hands of the market, the new antibiotics that we most urgently need will not be developed in time,” he says.
To promote research to obtain these substances, WHO officials have drawn up a list that takes into account twelve pathogens divided into three categories, depending on how urgent it is to obtain new antibiotics to combat them .
In the group where the studies are most pressing are some multi-resistant bacteria, the most difficult to treat, immune to the action of one or more of these drugs. It is estimated that each year some 700,000 people die from its cause around the world ; the misuse of antibiotics and their excessive consumption contribute decisively to this. In a statement, the WHO warns that these are “especially dangerous in hospitals, nursing homes and among patients who need to be treated with devices such as ventilators and intravenous catheters.” This category includes the species Acinetobacter baumannii , Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and several Enterobacteriaceae, including those of the genera Klebsiella , Proteus, and Serratia , as well as Escherichia coli . This is very abundant in our microbiota, but pathogenic strains can cause from serious intestinal infections to pneumonia .
In the following two categories, of high and medium priority, other microorganisms are shown in which an increase in their resistance has been observed, and that cause from gonorrhea to salmonellosis. These are included in the first of them: Enterococcus faecium , Staphylococcus aureus , Helicobacter pylori , Campylobacter spp , Salmonellae and Neisseria gonorrhoeae . In the second are: Streptococcus pneumoniae , Haemophilus influenzae and Shigella spp .
WHO experts point out that they have not included the germ that causes tuberculosis because it has its own research program, and that in order to draw up the list they have assessed how lethal the infections caused by pathogens are; if your treatment requires a long stay in the hospital; how often they show resistance; how easily they are transmitted between animals, from animals to people or between human beings; if they can be prevented; what options are there to combat them; and if there are ongoing investigations to address their resistance.
In addition, they point out that although studies are essential, to curb this phenomenon, prevention must be improved and antibiotics used rationally, also when they are administered to animals.
Image: CDC / James Archer
