The number of people dying from antibiotic-resistant infections has risen in the past year and experts have warned of an “alarming rise” in the number of ineffective drugs being used to combat sepsis.
Dame Jenny Harris, chief executive of the UK Health Safety Authority (UKHSA), urged people to “treat antibiotics with respect” to ensure they are effective. According to the agency, 58,224 people in England had an antibiotic-resistant infection in 2022, up 4 percent on the previous year. Some 2,202 people died as a result, compared with 2,110 in the previous twelve months.
Figures published by UKHSA show that antibiotic use in England fell between 2014 and 2020, with a sharp decline in 2020. However, this trend has reversed: last year the number of antibiotics prescribed increased by 8.4%.
Dr Colin Brown, deputy director of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at the UKHSA, said that while the burden of antibiotic-resistant infections had fallen since 2018, this decline was due to the Covid-19 pandemic and related changes in the composition of people receiving health care. associated with the spread of infection.
He said: “Unfortunately, we are seeing a further increase in antibiotic-resistant infections in 2022 compared to the previous period. “We have not yet reduced the proportion of resistant infections – it remains quite high, around one in five bloodstream infections – and we are seeing an alarming increase in resistance associated with some antibiotics used to fight bloodstream infections and sepsis. “
The chance of dying within 30 days from an antibiotic-resistant infection increased from 19 percent to 20 percent in 2022, compared with 16 percent for drug-sensitive strains. People over 64 had the highest rate of bloodstream infections caused by resistant pathogens, followed by children under one year of age.
UKHSA data also showed that people from the lowest socioeconomic groups were more likely to develop an antibiotic-resistant infection compared to people from wealthier groups, while Asians and British Asians were more likely to get the disease. Officials are trying to understand the reasons behind this.
Dame Jenny said: “Antimicrobial resistance is not a crisis of the future, but a crisis that concerns us right now. We assume that an antibiotic is available to us in case of a bacterial infection, but sometimes this is simply not possible.
“If no action is taken, the availability of life-saving treatments will only decline and our ability to reduce infection rates will decline, with the worst consequences likely for people in the poorest social strata.”
Dame Jenny urged people to curb the spread of infection by avoiding vulnerable people if they feel unwell, washing their hands regularly and ventilating areas.
Meanwhile, Covid-19 has shown the importance of genomic surveillance, which is also needed to combat antimicrobial resistance, the research team said.
Professor Sharon Peacock, from the University of Cambridge and the driving force behind the UK’s pioneering Covid-19 genomics consortium, said: “Over the last century, antibiotics have transformed our ability to treat infections and diseases and reduce deaths. “But bacteria will always be more resistant, and with a limited supply of new antibiotics, we risk returning to a pre-antibiotic era when we can no longer treat infections.
“When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, we demonstrated the power of a genomic surveillance tool to help us counterattack. This work has resulted from increasing application to real-world problems such as identifying outbreaks in hospitals and communities, including foodborne outbreaks. We must now take what we have learned from the pandemic, including its bold and widespread use, and reapply it to the complex problem of AMR.”
Source: I News
I’m Raymond Molina, a professional writer and journalist with over 5 years of experience in the media industry. I currently work for 24 News Reporters, where I write for the health section of their news website. In my role, I am responsible for researching and writing stories on current health trends and issues. My articles are often seen as thought-provoking pieces that provide valuable insight into the state of society’s wellbeing.