WHO issues warning as antibiotic use gets risky

THE World Health Organization warned yesterday that antibiotics consumption is dangerously high in some countries while a shortage in others is spurring risky misuse, driving the emergence of deadly superbug infections.

In a first, the United Nations health agency said it had collated data on antibiotic use across large parts of the world and had found huge differences in consumption.

The report, based on 2015 data from 65 countries and regions, showed a significant difference in consumption rates from as low as around four so-called defined daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants per day in Burundi to more than 64 in Mongolia.

“The large difference in antibiotic use worldwide indicates that some countries are probably overusing antibiotics while other countries may not have sufficient access to these life-saving medicines,” WHO warned in a statement.

Discovered in the 1920s, antibiotics have saved tens of millions of lives by defeating bacterial diseases such as pneumonia, tuberculosis and meningitis. But over the decades, bacteria have learned to fight back, building resistance to the same drugs that once vanquished them.

The WHO has repeatedly warned the world is running out of effective antibiotics, and last year urged governments and big pharma to create a new generation of drugs to fight ultra-resistant supergerms.

“Overuse and misuse of antibiotics are the leading causes of antimicrobial resistance,” Suzanne Hill, head of WHO’s essential medicines unit, said in a statement.

Bacteria can become resistant when patients use antibiotics they do not need, or do not finish a course of treatment, giving the half-defeated bug a chance to recover and build immunity.

Hill insisted that the findings “confirm the need to take urgent action, such as enforcing prescription-only policies, to reduce unnecessary use of antibiotics.”

While overuse of antibiotics is worrying, WHO said low numbers were also of concern. “Resistance can occur when people cannot afford a full course of treatment or only have access to substandard or falsified medicines,” it said.

WHO acknowledged the picture of how antibiotics are used around the world remains far from complete.

Notably missing from the chart are the United States, China and India.