GROWING resistance to infection-busting drugs must be treated as an “economic and security threat” to avoid ten million extra deaths a year, a major review says.
Overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals has weakened their ability to tackle both infections and a new breed of superbugs.
A global action plan published today says failing to solve the problem will result in ten million additional annual deaths by 2050 and cost more than £66trillion in lost output.
If antibiotics lose their effectiveness key medical procedures could become too dangerous, it warns.
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That would mean an end to chemotherapy, caesareans, gut ops and joint replacements. The death rate from all infections would rise from 7 to 40 per cent.
Review chairman Lord Jim O’Neill says tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is “absolutely essential”.
And he has now called for drug companies to be rewarded with $1billion (£690million) if they develop new treatments.
At present, around 7% of deaths are due to infections.
But if we do not act, this could rise to 40% — as it was before we had antibiotics.
The review was commissioned by David Cameron in 2014 to avoid the world being “cast back into the dark ages of medicine”.
It sets out a series of measures to try and tackle the threat of AMR.
They include reducing the unnecessary use of antimicrobial drugs in humans and animals, and increasing public awareness of the problem.
Lord O’Neill said: “My review not only makes it clear how big a threat AMR is to the world but also sets out a workable blueprint for bold, global action to tackle this challenge.
“The actions that I’m setting out today are ambitious in their scope – but this is a problem which it is well within our grasp to solve if we take action now.
“I call on the governments of the G7, G20 and the UN to take real action in 2016, to avoid the terrible human and economic costs of resistance that the world with otherwise face.”
The review says a new class of antibiotic has not been seen for decades because of a lack of incentive for investment in research and development.
It suggests one way to encourage the development of new drugs would be to handsomely reward drug developers, partially funded by a tax on current antibiotic drugs.
It also suggests that pharmaceutical companies who do not invest in research for AMR should be forced to pay an “antibiotic investment charge”.
Chancellor George Osborne said the review provides a “stark warning” that AMR will become a greater threat to mankind than cancer.
He said: “Apart from the moral case for action of the sort Lord O’Neill proposes, the economic cost of failing to act is too great to contemplate.
“So I am calling on other finance ministries to come together this year and, working with industry leaders and medical experts, agree a common approach.”
Professor Mark Baker, from The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, said: “Drug resistance is often spoken about as if it is a future concern, a problem we are yet to face.
“This is not the case. Our own Chief Medical Officer has labelled it ‘as big a risk as terrorism’ and it is happening now.
“For too long we have gazed into the future making predictions of worst case scenarios and quoting alarming death rates in the millions by 2050.
“There are people who will die today because the drugs they need no-longer work. We need to act now.”
Professor Dame Sally Davies, chief medical officer for England, said: “We are already seeing the consequences of AMR, with estimates of around 50,000 deaths per year recently in Europe and the US, due to antibiotic resistant infections, and far greater numbers worldwide.
“The projected figures are much more worrying.”
Dr Jeremy Farrar, director of the health charity Wellcome Trust, said drug-resistant infection is “one of the most pressing economic and health security issues of our time”.
Professor Nigel Gibbens, UK chief veterinary officer, said: “The impact of antimicrobial resistance is already serious and has the potential to be devastating to human health and the global economy.”