Increasing Antibiotics Resistance Raises Fear of Deaths

Because of the number of factors that go into surgical-site infections, it’s really hard to know how many of them are caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The researchers – from the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy in Washington DC – reviewed trials conducted between 1968 and 2011, examining the efficacy of antibiotic prophylaxis in preventing infections and related deaths after 10 of the most common surgical procedures and blood cancer chemotherapy.

Using a computer model, the team was able to predict that just a 10 percent increase in antibiotic resistance could lead to 40,000 more infections and at least 2,100 infection-related deaths following surgery or chemo each year.

“It is a game changer: by reining in the misuse of these miracle drugs, it helps ensure that life-saving antibiotics will be effective when we need them most”.

More meetings have been set to further the conversation regarding data collection and the use of antibiotics in agriculture, said officials with the US Department of Health and Human Services.

“Writing in a linked Comment, Dr Joshua Wolf from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, US says, “[These authors] Teillant and colleagues describe a future in which patients who need surgery or chemotherapy can no longer be protected from life-threatening infections by antibiotic prophylaxis.

The move is part of ongoing work across the country to meet the goals outlined in the National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, he said. The bill prohibits using antibiotics exclusively for purposes of gaining weight or improving feed efficiency. Taking antibiotics for illnesses the drugs weren’t made to treat – such as flu and common colds – contributes to antibiotic resistance.

For the report, the researchers looked at what could happen to people having common operations and being treated for cancer with chemotherapy if antibiotic resistance increased by a third – in line with current trends.

“Increasing antibiotic resistance potentially threatens the safety and efficacy of surgical procedures and immunosuppressing chemotherapy”, the authors concluded in their study. Often, before procedures such as Cesarean section, prostate biopsy, colon surgery or hip replacements, patients are given antibiotics to protect them from getting infections while they recover. A few respondents also said they didn’t see antibiotic resistance as a priority when treating individual patients, choosing instead to pass that responsibility on to other parties. Almost 23,000 people die annually and almost 2 million become sick because of improper antibiotic use, according to the CDC.

A September report found inappropriate antibiotic use has driven alarming rates of antibiotic resistance worldwide, with overuse high even in low- and middle-income nations. At a talk this month at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo in Nashville, Dr. Steve Solomon, former director of the CDC’s Office of Antimicrobial Resistance, called antibiotic resistance “a critical problem that we’ve been trying to solve for decades”.