On Monday, Public Health England releases its ESPAUR[*] report, revealing that as antibiotic resistance grows, the options for treatment decrease.

Below is comment from Professor Colin Garner, chief executive of Antibiotic Research UK, discussing the report and calling for action to develop new antibiotics.

 

Professor Colin Garner, CEO of Antibiotic Research UK, the world’s first charity dedicated to tackling antibiotic resistance says: “Public Health England’s report -out today – illustrates that we are heading at speed towards a “post-antibiotic apocalypse” and Antibiotic Research UK welcomes their new campaign to help ‘Keep Antibiotics Working’. If we continue to use antibiotics where they are not required, the frequency of antibiotic resistance infections will continue to increase until modern medicine is significantly impacted and routine treatments no longer be possible. Our charity has been highlighting the problem of antibiotic resistance for the past 3 years and each year that has gone by the problem has worsened. As a charity we are well placed to work with the public and we would like to see PHE engage with us. There is far too much fragmentation in tackling resistance. We have called for the formation of a GRAND ALLIANCE of all UK stakeholders to work much more closely together.

 

“As well as improving an understanding of antibiotic use, we need to create new antibiotics before infections become untreatable. Sepsis is a common cause of death in the UK with over 44,000 deaths each year. More people die from sepsis than lung cancer (35,000) and bowel cancer (16,000) and many of these sepsis deaths are due to untreatable antibiotic resistant infections.  Only two new antibiotic classes have been introduced in the last 40 years so we don’t have new drugs to fight antibiotic resistant bacteria in our armoury. This is of great concern and we are tackling the problem through our research, educational and patient support programmes’.

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