The lessons learned in the fight against the virus of COVID-19 must be used to fight against another scourge which seriously threatens the world population: the resistance to antibiotics, underlined Thursday the WHO.
• Read also: [EN DIRECT 15 AVRIL] All the developments of the pandemic
• Read also: COVID-19: 1,513 new cases and 15 more deaths in Quebec
The World Health Organization has released its new report on drugs being developed to fight superbacteria, so named because they are resistant to many classes of antibiotics.
And the observation of the WHO is gloomy because there are very few new effective drugs in the projects of pharmaceutical companies.
But she believes the mobilization against COVID-19 has proven that rapid progress can be made when spurred on by political will.
Achilles’ heel
“Antibiotics are the Achilles heel of universal health coverage and our health safety,” said Haileyesus Getahun, WHO’s in charge of the antibacterial resistance division.
“The opportunities that present themselves in light of the COVID-19 pandemic must be seized to underscore the need for sustainable investment (in research) for new and effective antibiotics,” he added.
He suggests the creation of a global mechanism to raise funds to fight bacterial resistance similar to what has been done to develop vaccines against Covid.
COVID-19 has taught us “how quickly a contagious disease can spread,” Henry Skinner, who heads the AMR Action Fund, told a press conference.
“We need the right drugs available to always be able to treat these infections and prevent them from turning into a pandemic,” he said.
Resistant bacteria kill more than 68,000 people each year in Europe and the United States. And it’s arguably more serious in middle- and low-income countries, but the data is not available, said Peter Beyer, who heads the Global Coordination and Collaborating Unit on Antibacterial Resistance.
It has only increased and increased because antibiotics are too much and badly used, whether in animal husbandry or to treat humans.
The bacteria then develop resistance and no longer respond to existing treatments.
We must therefore create new antibiotics, but pharmaceutical groups are reluctant to invest large sums in a sector which is seen as unprofitable.
80 years
So most of the antibiotics that have come onto the market are classes of drugs discovered before the 1980s, the organization said.
In its annual report, it notes that none of the 43 antibiotics under development can effectively fight the most dangerous bacteria in circulation.
It also points out that 82% of recently authorized antibiotics belong to classes of drugs to which bacteria have already shown resistance.
“Although there are innovative products being developed, it is likely that only a fraction of them will be brought to market due to the high failure rates in the process,” warns authors of the report.
For the first time, WHO is also cataloging non-traditional antibacterial drugs. It identifies 27 of them, including monoclonal antigens or even the use of phages, these viruses infecting only bacteria which were widely used behind the “iron curtain” during the Cold War and are now being rediscovered in the West.