29
Jan 2019
Five year plan unveiled to tackle ‘urgent’ global antibiotic resistance threat
The health secretary plans to unveil a new five year plan to tackle the problem of drug-resistant superbugs amid claims that they are as big a threat as climate change.
Infections have become harder to treat due to overuse of antibiotics, leading to thousands of deaths each year through drug-resistant superbugs.
The new plan will increase efforts to reduce unnecessary use of drugs and also change the way the government funds drug companies in order to encourage them to develop new medicines.
In the unveiling of the plan, health secretary Matt Hancock will say “Each and every one of us benefits from antibiotics but we all too easily take them for granted and I shudder at the thought of a world in which their power is diminished.
“Antimicrobial resistance is as big a danger to humanity as climate change or warfare. That’s why we need an urgent global response.”
In the last five years, the UK has reduced the amount of antibiotics prescribed by over 7 per cent, although the number of drug-resistant infections increased by a third in the five years from 2013 to 2017.
Previous research has found that antibiotics have routinely been prescribed for self-healing conditions, such as viruses or sore throats, many which do not even respond to antibiotics.
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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.
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