‘Excessive antibiotic use for Covid risks rise of superbugs’

CORONAVIRUS risks fuelling the spread of superbugs due to the “excessive use” of antibiotics to treat sick patients, England’s former chief medical officer warns today.

In her first major intervention during the pandemic, Dame Sally Davies urges hospitals to avoid overusing antibiotic drugs while attempting to prevent Covid-19 patients catching secondary infections. Antimicrobial resistance, where antibiotics no longer work for some serious infections, already poses a greater threat to humanity than coronavirus, she warns.

In an article for The Daily Telegraph website, co-written with Thomas Cueni, director general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, Dame Sally warns: “Antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, already has the potential to be as catastrophic if not more than Covid-19 if insufficient action is taken in time.

“We are starting to see evidence of an excessive use of antibiotics for prevention or treatment of coronavirus infections, as well as secondary infections that affect Covid-19 patients.

“While Covid-19 is a new virus, AMR is a threat we have known for years. It is a predictable and preventable crisis, and we should be clear on the extent of the risk that humanity is facing if we don’t act in time.”

According to recent research published in The Lancet, around half the people who die from Covid-19 suffer a secondary infection, usually in the later stages of the disease.

Around 95 per cent of Covid-19 patients admitted to hospital are given antibiotics, either to treat an existing infection or to prevent one occurring.

“While only a small proportion suffer from secondary infections that would require use of antibiotics in treatment, data from healthcare systems around the world show how antibiotics have been used on almost all of the Covid-19 patients who are put on ventilators to provide protection from secondary infections,” says Dame Sally, who became the UK’S special envoy on antimicrobial resistance after leaving the post of CMO last June and has long warned of the dangers of needlessly treating patients with antibiotics.

An alliance of more than 20 leading pharmaceutical companies has launched the AMR Action Fund, with an initial investment of nearly $1 billion. The goal is to bring two to four new antibiotics to market in the next decade. Dame Sally calls the iniative “a potential game-changer”.