Recently, in a hospital in the Indian city of Hyderabad, a patient in the ICU was realy ill with an extensive drug resistant bacterial infection. It was under a ‘compassionate use protocol’ that the necessary approvals were obtained to treat the patient with a promising candidate currently undergoing phase 3 trials - cefepime-zidebactam. The patient, on whom no other drug worked, recovered, slowly but steadily. Following this, a fervent appeal was made to the government to allow emergency use authorisation (EUA) for antibiotics currently in phase 3 trials or licensed from other countries.
Abdul Ghafur, infectious diseases specialist, and one of the authors of the Chennai Declaration, a joint medical community effort to handle antimicrobial resistance in the country, says the precedent set by the COVID-19 pandemic and the effective use of EUA as a strategy in the face of great harm must be extended to other life-saving antibiotics as well.
There certainly is great interest in solutions to tackle AMR effectively, the world over. Reflecting this trend, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently set the global research agenda for AMR in human health, and prioritised 40 research topics for evidence generation to inform policy by 2030.
The WHO records that AMR poses a considerable threat to human health, with an estimated 4.95 million deaths in 2019. They also noted a global increase in new cases of rifampicin and multi-drug resistant TB in 2012, besides an increasing number of invasive fungal infections. It comes as no surprise that low- and middle-income countries may be disproportionately affected, with higher mortality rates from infections with resistant organisms.
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It was in 2015 that the WHO launched a Global Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance, with the goal of mitigating the emergence and transmission of resistant infections. The current priority research agenda comes in recognition of the fact that over the “past six years, little progress has been made in improving awareness of antimicrobial resistance, monitoring antimicrobial consumption, implementing infection prevention and control programmes and optimising antimicrobial use in the human sector”.
Acknowledging that substantial knowledge gaps on AMR still exist and hamper an effective evidence-informed response, the WHO notes that its priority research agenda would be critical in guiding policy-makers, researchers, funders, implementing partners, industry and civil society in generating new evidence to inform AMR policies and interventions. Interestingly it also aims at optimising the delivery of diagnostics and medicines in low and middle income countries.
Published - June 30, 2023 10:30 am IST
