We’ve been in the habit of making clarion calls for new research on anti-microbial drugs here for donkey’s years now. Even reported, where we could, on promising new results. Progress has been slow, we admit. But if you lift your head up and look at the bigger picture, there’s quite a lot of stuff we could be doing to ward off the fateful day when every bacterium becomes resistant. And once again, it’s that excellent website Nature Briefings which suggests some simple, common sense steps people can take now to keep them safe. Particularly in poorer countries, where the stupidities of the world economic order have combined to make cash a little tight. They’ve put up two blocks today, with links, and they’re well worth a read.

HOW TO SAVE MILLIONS OF LIVES Last week, we learnt that more than 39 million people could die from antibiotic-resistant infections by 2050. But it doesn’t have to be that way, argues epidemiologist Ramanan Laxminarayan — if we make sure that people in low- and middle-income countries get the appropriate antibiotics they need. “Even a fairly modest global investment — in the range of hundreds of millions of US dollars — to help prevent bacterial infections and improve access to relatively inexpensive antibiotics could avert millions of deaths,” he writes.Nature | 5 min read
Reference: The Lancet report

STRAIGHTFORWARD SOLUTIONS TO AMR Better sanitation, improved infection control practices at health-care facilities and increased vaccination are among the solutions proposed by four specialists — from Bangladesh, Brazil, Nigeria and the Middle East — who spoke to Nature ahead of a United Nations meeting on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). For example, microbiologist Iruka Okeke says that access to clean water and toilets in Nigeria could reduce gastric infections and AMR simultaneously, yielding an estimated return of US$5 or more for every $1 spent.Nature | 10 min read

We always like it when brisk, cheap solutions, using existing ideas and technology make a real difference. We hope you do too, gentle readers.

#antibiotics #drug resistant micro-organisms #health #sanitation #clean water

More news from the antibiotics front. And this time, it’s overwhelmingly good. The first of a new class-type antibiotic, Zosurabalpin, is now in early trials. Today, our lead comes from the tireless Linda Geddes of The Guardian. [1] We urge you to read her excellent story, while picking just a few of the key points

From our earliest days Facebooking, then blogging in this area the great problem has been the gram negative bacteria with tough, almost leathery cell membranes which could exclude any antibiotic we could put up against them. The carbapenem class brought us few years respite. But systematic over prescription brought soaring levels of resistance. And this is what gave long faces to the scientists and doctors we used to chat with back around ’16 and ’17

As you will learn from Linda’s article, Zosorubalpin and other new antibiotics under development hope to weaken those cell walls by targeting the flow of lipopolysaccharides, thereby precluding their formation. It’s an ingenious way of re-thinking the problem, and we offer the researchers involved [2] our most heartfelt thanks. However, don’t think humanity is out of the woods. The same problems which wrecked the last generation of antibiotics could recur. Heedless over-prescription, driven by demand from ignorant, hysterical patients. Mass misuse in agriculture, in search of of short term production targets. Failure to develop successor molecule as resistance builds to Zosurabalpin and its peers. All these mistakes are out there, waiting to happen again. The scientists have given us one last chance. Have we the brains to take it?

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/jan/03/scientists-new-class-antibiotic-kill-drug-resistant-bacteria?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[2]https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06799-7

#antibiotics #resistance #gram negative #zosurabalpin