PRO/AMR> Antimicrobial stewardship (167): global, AB shortage, tackle AMR
Reply-To: noreply@isid.org
ANTIMICROBIAL STEWARDSHIP (167): GLOBAL, ANTIMICROBIAL SHORTAGE,
TACKLE ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE
A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org
Date: Wed 1 Nov 2023
Source: Taipei Times [edited]
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2023/11/01/2003808512
The overuse of antibiotics is widely recognized as one of the main
factors contributing to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), often called
the “silent pandemic,” but what is less well known is that shortages
of antibiotics also play a role in fueling it.
Scarce supplies of pediatric amoxicillin, used to treat Strep A, made
headlines in the UK late last year [2022], as a surge of infections
left at least 19 children dead. From being an outlier, such shortfalls
are common and pervasive, affecting countries across the world, and
their consequences for individuals’ health and AMR’s spread can be
dire.
That is because shortages of first-line antibiotics often lead to
overuse of those that are specialized or kept in reserve for
emergencies. Not only can these substitutes be less effective, but
reliance on them increases the risk of drug resistance developing and
infections becoming more difficult to treat in the long run.
Already one of the world’s biggest killers, AMR is on the rise. In
2019, it was directly responsible for an estimated 1.27 million deaths