Why antibiotic resistance could be the next global killer: Colin Garner

ONE of the most important things that we must learn from the current coronavirus tragedy is how to prevent it happening again.
Research into resistance to antibiotics is now even more urgent, says Professor Colin Garner.Research into resistance to antibiotics is now even more urgent, says Professor Colin Garner.
Research into resistance to antibiotics is now even more urgent, says Professor Colin Garner.

However, unless we can now start producing more detailed death certificates accurately listing the cause of death and not just a blanket description, plus ask questions as to why certain groups are more at risk than others, then once again we will be surmising.

And it will not be surprising if a pandemic more widespread and virulent attacks a human race that has become sloppy and complacent about its health.

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The next world-wide killer may well be antibiotic resistance. Don’t say you haven’t been warned. The United Nations predicts that 10 million people will perish by 2050 because infection drugs don’t work, and that the problem will become bigger than cancer.

Professor Colin Garner is chief executive and founder of York-based Antibiotic Research UK..Professor Colin Garner is chief executive and founder of York-based Antibiotic Research UK..
Professor Colin Garner is chief executive and founder of York-based Antibiotic Research UK..

Its influence is with us, already. What little we have in terms of data from Wuhan, China, shows opportunistic bacterial lung infections were found in 15 per cent of hospitalised patients.

All but one of those patients died. In layperson’s terms that means that the killer was not the virus, but the second punch of an antibiotic resistant infection (likely pneumonia) leading to sepsis. Like most patients treated on intensive care units, these desperately ill people would have been given antibiotics. And they just didn’t work.

Here in Britain, antibiotic resistance isn’t even recorded on a death certificate. So goodness knows how we are going to prevent other poor souls from perishing in the same fashion if we don’t know how big the problem is.

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Along with the reasons why some patients with no underlying health conditions have died and why Covid-19 is so prevalent in BAME communities, antibiotic resistance leading to mortality must be analysed properly since we know the impact of drug-resistant infections is higher in the same communities. With better knowledge, we can act more smartly.

Staff at the opening of the Nightingale Hospital in Harrogate - proof, says Professor Cllin Garner, that the NHS can react speedily.Staff at the opening of the Nightingale Hospital in Harrogate - proof, says Professor Cllin Garner, that the NHS can react speedily.
Staff at the opening of the Nightingale Hospital in Harrogate - proof, says Professor Cllin Garner, that the NHS can react speedily.

More positively, here is another salient lesson we can learn. When Britain decides to act, it does so swiftly, and we have the skills within the labs of universities and pharmaceutical companies, to be world leaders in combating and preventing disease.

There will undoubtedly be questions asked about the lack of urgency when it came to lockdown. Ergo the issues of ventilators and personal protection equipment. But we should also pride ourselves on the way we have literally built hospitals (and clean ones at that) such as the Nightingale in Harrogate in weeks and treated and discharged patients so successfully.

Oxford University and Imperial College London are working at breakneck speed to develop a new vaccine. As the nation who gave the world everything from penicillin to the smallpox vaccine, we are demonstrating again how we are at the forefront of medical innovation. The signs look promising, the development process even more so.

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Health Secretary Matt Hancock says that the Government is throwing everything it has at the vaccine contenders. It has accelerated the development process from years to months. And it has put the solving of this dire health crisis in the hands of great minds – the much-maligned scientific experts!

It is my belief now that the current crisis will stimulate a much-needed interest in health, from simple but effective hygiene practices to cutting-edge research. In the way we strove for cures for conditions such as polio and TB in years gone by, we will once again be sparked into a new era of innovation and a realisation that our now traditional medicines will not cure all conditions.

That sense of urgency must be applied to antibiotic resistance. Our York-based charity remains the only one in the world dedicated to combating this potential mass killer. Visit the Patient Stories page of our website and see how our paucity of effective drugs is ruining lives here and now.

That process of medical innovation must begin with learning lessons from the current outbreak. If we don’t, we are risking the health of ourselves, our children and our children’s children.

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If you are concerned about an ongoing drug-resistant condition such as a urinary tract infection, contact the charity’s patient support team by email at [email protected] or telephone 07367 784114.

Professor Colin Garner is chief executive and founder of York-based Antibiotic Research UK.

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