CDDEP released new data documenting alarming rates of bacteria resistant to last-resort antibiotics

[Gert van der Hoek]

WASHINGTON, D.C. and NEW DELHI (17 September 2015) -- Researchers at the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP) released new data today documenting alarming rates of bacteria resistant to last-resort antibiotics that can lead to life-threatening infections across the world. Though wealthy countries still use far more antibiotics per capita, high rates in the low- and middle-income countries where surveillance data is now available?such as India, Kenya, and Vietnam?sound a warning to the world.

For example, in India, 57 percent of the infections caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae, a dangerous superbug found in hospitals, were found to be resistant to one type of last-resort drug in 2014, up from 29 percent in 2008. For comparison, these drugs, known as carbapenems, are still effective against Klebsiella infections in 90 percent of cases in the United States and over 95 percent of cases in most of Europe.

CDDEP?s State of the World?s Antibiotics, 2015 says limiting overuse and misuse of antibiotics are the only sustainable solutions. ?We need to focus 80 percent of our global resources on stewardship and no more than 20 percent on drug development,? said Laxminarayan. ?No matter how many new drugs come out, if we continue to misuse them, they might as well have never been discovered.?

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Image is link to the report "State of the World's Antibiotics, 2015" - PDF