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StaphAseptic™ News
Increase In Drug-Resistant Infections Sparks Call For Global Action
June 16, 2010
NPR
by Jaclyn Schiff
Infectious diseases resistant to treatment could become increasingly common and severe without a coordinated international effort to thwart them.
Drug-resistant strains of major infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis have already emerged.
Medicines against microbes tend to become less effective over time. But a report from the Center for Global Development finds that resistance to the drugs is hastened in many countries by drug misuse, weak health systems and overuse of the medicines in agriculture.
Drug-resistant strains of major infectious diseases, such as malaria, pneumonia and tuberculosis have already emerged. And in some cases, drug-resistant mutations have become the dominant strain. Some examples:
- 60 to 80 percent of dysentery strains in children in Latin America are resistant to recommended drugs, according to the report.
- 10 years ago drug-resistant HIV strains made up between 1 and 5 percent of cases, but now make up between 5 and 10 percent of cases worldwide, the Associated Press reported in January as part of a series of articles looking at drug-resistance.
- Earlier this year, Reuters reported on the ongoing story of malaria along the Thai-Cambodian border that is showing resistance to the most effective drugs on the market.
The problem isn't restricted to poor countries. In the United States, the "superbug" methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureas (MRSA) went from accounting for 2 percent of hospital staph infections in 1974 to more than 50 percent in 2004.
This is a portion of the original article. To keep reading, visit NPR.com
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