GROWING THREAT

IN 2016, 490,000 people developed multi-resistant tuberculosis globally and drug resistance is also starting to complicate the fight against HIV and malaria.

A growing number of bacteria now have higher resistance rates against antibiotics, with some as much as 61 per cent. This means there is a 61 per cent possibility that the given antibiotic would not be effective in patients receiving treatment.

The devastating effect of these resistant bacteria on patients is both alarming and significant. These infections pose a significant public health and economic burden for our healthcare system.

Antibiotics are important medicine and have been in use for the past 70 years to treat various bacterial infections but the world is now facing a large and ever growing problem due to infections caused by bacteria that are increasingly resistant to existing antibiotics, says Azwar Kamarudin, director of corporate affairs for Pfizer Malaysia.

Azwar adds that rates of antibiotic resistance will continue to rise if effective control measures are not adequately implemented and if antibiotics continue to be misused or used inappropriately.

But the good news is that there is hope for us to stem the tide of resistance but we need to act now and act aggressively to control the rates of resistance.

“The fight against superbugs is a joint effort. It not only requires industry players, governments and policy makers, and healthcare professionals but also the general public to join forces to slow the growing public health threat of antimicrobial resistance.”