WHO: Global spread of antibiotic-resistant superbugs threatens ‘devastation’

The world is entering a post-antibiotic era in which common infections and minor injuries can kill, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned.

In a chilling report, the WHO said the spread of deadly superbugs that evade even the most powerful antibiotics is no longer a prediction but is happening across the world.

Dr Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s assistant director-general for health security, warned of “devastating” implications if governments fail to improve efforts to prevent infections and change the way we use antibiotics.

The scale of the problem which is “happening right now” is so great, that, according to Dr Fukuda, it “threatens the achievements of modern medicine”.

“Without urgent, co-ordinated action by many stakeholders, the world is headed for a post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries which have been treatable for decades can once again kill,” Dr Fukuda said.

Dr Margaret Hannan, a consultant microbiologist at the Mater Hospital in Dublin, said there had been a small number of outbreaks of ultra drug-resistant superbugs in Ireland, primarily brought in from overseas. While they had been “mostly well contained” an absence of screening in many hospitals meant bugs would spread.

“The danger is a patient could be having simple surgery that could turn into a devastating event. Then it’s the end of the road for the patient,” she said.

Ideally, hospitals should be carrying out rectal swabs to screen for CRE (carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae) and ESBL (extended-spectrum beta- lactamas) which Dr Hannan said were extremely resistant and a “dangerous threat to health”. However not every hospital had the resources or the time, she said.

The dilemma the country was facing was whether to invest in tackling superbugs or allowing them become endemic and embedded in all hospitals as was the case with MRSA, she said.

MRSA rates have halved in Ireland since 2006, largely due to focused efforts to combat its spread.

Among the WHO report’s key findings are:

* Resistance to the treatment of last resort for life-threatening infections caused by a common intestinal bacteria, Klebsiella pneumoniae, has spread to all regions of the world. K pneumoniae is a major cause of hospital-acquired infections such as pneumonia, bloodstream infections and infections in newborns.

* Resistance to one of the most widely-used antibacterial medicines for the treatment of urinary tract infections caused by e coli is very widespread.

The Irish are heavier users of antibiotics than many other Europeans.