Tackle antimicrobial resistance "from all directions"

Today marks the seventh European Antibiotics Awareness Day, coinciding with awareness weeks in North America and Australia, as antimicrobial resistance to many forms of antibiotics continues to spread.

The European commissioner for health and food safety Vytenis Andriukaitis voiced his concern at the “near doubling” of resistance in a certain bacteria, illustrating the need to tackle the issue “from all directions”.

“Antimicrobial resistance is one the most pressing public health issues of our time, and as incoming health commissioner, I pledge to prioritise it throughout my five year mandate,” Andriukaitis said.

“We need to understand antimicrobial resistance at every level and in every environment

MRC head Des Walsh

To combat the issue of antimicrobial resistance, companies in the UK are backing a call for patients and prescribers to ’resist and desist’ antibiotic use.

Clinical diagnostics firm Randox Laboratories has developed biochip array technology as one of the “latest weapons” in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.

“Through a more comprehensive screening strategy at initial presentation, a complete patient profile can be obtained which will give clinicians greater understanding of the working of the disease and allow them to diagnose and prescribe correctly, ruling in or out the need for antibiotics, and helping to control their appropriate use,” said Randox managing director Peter FitzGerald.

Elsewhere, the University of Dundee, alongside British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC), has launched its first online, free-access course on antimicrobial stewardship aimed at helping to educate healthcare professionals.

The course, which will official commence in September 2015, “will enable healthcare professionals to understand what stewardship is and how it can be applied in practice”, a university statement said.

Dilip Nathwani, president elect of BSAC, said: “Free online courses offer an innovative way to educate healthcare professionals across the globe on the issue of antimicrobial resistance and how we can best tackle it, including making better and more effective use of antibiotics - the concept of antimicrobial stewardship.

“The course will be developed by a training faculty comprising experts from different professional societies and organisations internationally, and this diversity of experience and skills will ensure we address both generic and local training needs.”

Future-proof

Today, the Medical Research Council (MRC) published its latest report which looks at key research achievements over the past 30 years and sets out the “foundation for future research into antimicrobial resistance”.

According to the MRC, the UK has spent roughly £275 million on research into new classes of antibiotics, though success has been extremely limited, while estimates suggest that current antibiotics may be useless within the next 20 years.

However, Des Walsh, head of Infections & Immunity at the MRC, said: “Years of research mean that we are now in a better position than ever to get to the bottom of how and why some bugs are resistant to antibiotics.

“But we need to understand AMR (antimicrobial resistance) at every level and in every environment - from labs to livestock, from finding new diagnostic tools to educating professionals and the public.”