Antibiotic resistance as bad as terror threat?

LONDON: Resistance to antibiotics is all set to get listed alongside catastrophic terrorist attacks, severe gas-rich volcanic eruptions, coastal flooding and pandemic influenza in UK's National Risk of Civil Emergencies.

England's chief medical officer professor Dame Sally Davies has called antibiotic resistance a "ticking time bomb" with the world facing an "apocalyptic scenario" where 7% of all hospital admissions are taking place due to drug-resistant infections.

She has warned that the global health system could slip back by 200 years unless the catastrophic threat of antibiotic resistance is successfully tackled.

UK's Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (the Act) describes a civil emergency as "an event which threatens serious damage to human welfare - loss of human life."

Professor Davies says globally, in another 20 years, people will die more often following even a minor surgery.

"A simple cut to your finger could leave you fighting for your life. Cases of E Coli and Klebsiella bacteria have increased by two-thirds in recent years. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland 99,000 cases of bloodstream infections were reported in 2011-12 . E Coli alone accounted for 36% of cases compared with just 1.6% due to MRSA. Around 5,000 patients a year die from such blood poisoning each year, half with an antibiotic-resistant organism," Davies said.

According to her, while a new infectious disease has been discovered nearly every year over the past 30 years, there have been no new antibiotics since 1987, leaving our armoury nearly empty as diseases become resistant to existing drugs.

Professor Davies said, "Antimicrobial resistance poses a catastrophic threat. If we don't act now, routine operations like hip replacements or organ transplants could be deadly because of the risk of infection. That's why governments across the world, including the World Health Organization and G8, need to take this seriously" .

UK will also publish a fiveyear UK Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy shortly which will advocate the responsible use of antibiotics and strengthened surveillance.

Dame Sally urged the government to raise the issue during next month's G8 Summit in London.

Resistance to antibiotics is becoming a serious threat for India because of a popular habit to pop pills at will.

Even the WHO recently warned that the world is staring at a post-antibiotic era, when common infections will no longer have a cure.