Over 50 percent of life-threatening bacterial infections are becoming resistant to treatment, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said in its new report. Also, high levels of resistance to treatment are reported in bacteria frequently causing bloodstream infections in hospitals, according to the Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System report, published Friday, based on 2020 data from 87 countries. Antimicrobial resistance undermines modern medicine and puts millions of lives at risk, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Within the context of national testing coverage, the report, for the first time, analyses antimicrobial resistance (AMR) rates, tracking trends in 27 countries since 2017. It reveals high levels of bacteria resistance, frequently causing life-threatening bloodstream infections in hospitals, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter spp, which require treatment with last-resort antibiotics, such as carbapenems. However, eight percent of those infections caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae were resistant to carbapenems, increasing the risk of death. Bacterial infections are becoming increasingly resistant to treatments, with over 60 percent of Neisseria gonorrhoea infections, a common sexually transmitted disease, showing resistance to ciprofloxacin, one of the most widely used oral antibacterials. Read: WHO: Digital app released to boost physical activity, help get children moving And over 20 percent of E.coli isolates, the most common pathogen in urinary tract infections, were resistant to ampicillin and co-trimoxazole, first-line drugs, as well as second-line treatments known as fluoroquinolones. Although most antimicrobial resistance trends have remained stable over the past four years, bloodstream infections due to resistant E.coli, Salmonella, and gonorrhoea infections have jumped by at least 15 percent compared to 2017 rates. More research is needed to discover why AMR has increased and the extent to which infections are related to hospitalisations and antibiotic treatments during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the UN health agency. The pandemic also meant that several countries were unable to report data for 2020, it added."To truly understand the extent of the global threat and mount an effective public health response to AMR, we must scale up microbiology testing and provide quality-assured data across all countries, not just wealthier ones," Tedros said. New analyses show that countries with lower testing coverage – mostly low and middle-income countries (LMICs) – are more likely to report significantly higher AMR rates for "bug-drug" combinations. This may be partly because only a limited number of referral hospitals in many LMICs provide data for the WHO report. Read: Health must be at the centre in COP27 climate change negotiations: WHO These hospitals often care for the sickest patients who may have received previous antibiotic treatment. Meanwhile, in terms of antibiotic consumption, 65 percent of 27 reporting countries met the WHO's target of ensuring that at least 60 percent of antimicrobials are first or second-line treatments. "These 'ACCESS' antibiotics are effective in a wide range of infections with a relatively low risk of creating resistance. However, insufficient testing coverage and weak laboratory capacity, particularly in LMICs, make AMR rates difficult to interpret," the UN agency said.

Bangladeshi scientists made history by discovering a new antibiotic called Homicorcin. From the bacteria found in Jute seeds, they have discovered this outstanding antibiotic, which will fight against the powerful bacteria and save the lives of many patients. The study was published on May 27 in the ‘Scientific Reports’ journal of the international publisher Nature. Let's get to know more about this groundbreaking discovery. Background to Homicorcin discovery Starting from people's daily lives, Jute has long since enriched Bangladesh economically. So there has been a lot of significant work in different fields with this Golden Fiber. Bangladesh's famous geneticist late Dr. Maksudul Alam discovered the Jute gene design in 2010. Mubarak Ahmed Khan, Chief Scientific Adviser of Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation, made various useful things from Jute. Among them Jutin (corrugated sheet) in 2009 and Sonali Bag (Polythene) in 2016 are notable. Finally, in the middle of 2021, the country's researchers found a life-saving medicine from that Jute. The antibiotic 'Homicorcin' is named after the scientific name of bacteria and Jute. Read: 'Golden fibre' no longer holds glitter for Khulna jute farmers Research for the antibiotic Six members have worked in the research for 3 years in the Molecular Biology Lab of Dhaka University. Among them, the senior Dhaka University Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Professor Haseena Khan, Professor Dr. Mohammad Reazul Islam, and Professor Aftab Uddin of the Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology lead the study. AHM Shafiul Islam Mollah, a member of the Bangladesh Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) also joined with them. Besides, 3 students of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the Faculty of Biological Sciences, Dhaka University, Shammi Akhter, Mahbuba Ferdous, Badrul Haider, and Al Amin were also researchers. Haseena Khan, who has been researching Jute for a long time, discovered various kinds of micro-organisms in Jute while studying the mystery of its life. The interest to know their characteristics basically leads to the new research. Amazing information comes out of the study. More than 50 micro-organisms live in the grooves of Jute fibers. These include a bacterium called ‘Staphylococcus hominis’ that makes something from its own body that kills other bacteria. That means the bacterium is behaving like a deadly antibiotic. Researchers have identified 5 variants of this antibiotic. Two of these have already been mentioned in the report. Work is still going on with the effectiveness of the remaining 3. Read: BUILD explores producing paper pulp from the whole jute plant Efficacy of Homicorcin Homicorcin can work very well in patients whose antibiotics are no longer working. This antibiotic can fight many powerful bacteria. There are some bacteria known as Superbugs that no conventional antibiotic can cure. This new antibiotic has also been successful in these cases. There are basically two types of antibiotics. One is Broad-Spectrum, which works in all types of micro-organisms. Another is the Gram-Positive and Gram-Negative. With just one broad-spectrum antibiotic, resistance to many germs can be developed simultaneously. So researchers have found this category to be very effective. But the problem is - once the antimicrobial resistance builds up, the antibiotic no longer works. Happily, Homicorcin did not fall into the Broad-Spectrum category. Not only that, but it has also changed the earlier perception of researchers about the category of Gram-Positive and Gram-Negative. Read: International tender called for reopening closed jute mills: Jute Minister In the end How quickly Homicorcin antibiotic reaches the public depends on adequate funding from the Government and pharmaceutical companies. It usually takes at least 5 years to market any antibiotic. Therefore, joint efforts of all Government and non-Government sectors to ensure a fast supply of this life-saving medicine are in high demand of time.

A lack of new treatments for common infections has left people dangerously exposed to the “world’s most dangerous bacteria”, the UN health agency said on Thursday.  The alert from the World Health Organization (WHO) is delivered in a report showing that none of the 43 antibiotics in development today sufficiently addresses the growing threat posed by 13 priority drug-resistant bacteria.  “The persistent failure to develop, manufacture, and distribute effective new antibiotics is further fuelling the impact of antimicrobial resistance and threatens our ability to successfully treat bacterial infections,” said Dr. Hanan Balkhy, WHO Assistant Director General on antimicrobial resistance.  Those most at risk are young children and those living in poverty, but antibiotic-resistant infections can affect anyone, said WHO partner AMR.  Youngsters at risk  According to WHO, three in 10 newborns who develop blood infections die, because the antibiotics that are used to treat sepsis are no longer effective.  Bacterial pneumonia – another preventable illness which has developed resistance to available drugs – is also a major cause of childhood mortality among under-fives.  WHO’s annual Antibacterial Pipeline Report, notes that almost all antibiotics available today are variations of those discovered by the 1980s.   We rely hugely on them in all areas of our lives, from having a tooth out at the dentist, to organ transplants and cancer chemotherapy.  Unproductive pipeline   But after reviewing antibiotics that are in the clinical stages of testing, as well as those in development, the report highlighted a “near static pipeline” of production, which WHO’s Haileyesus Getahun likened to the “Achilles heel” of global health security.   “Opportunities emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic must be seized to bring to the forefront the needs for sustainable investments in research and development of new and effective antibiotics,” said Mr. Getahun, WHO Director of Antimicrobial Resistance Global Coordination.    “We need a global sustained effort including mechanisms for pooled funding and new and additional investments to meet the magnitude of the antimicrobial threat.”   Only a few drugs have been given early-stage approval by regulators in recent years “and most of these agents…offer limited clinical benefit over existing treatments, WHO said, with the warning that the “rapid emergence of drug-resistance to these new agents” was a certainty.  Fractional gains  This was despite the fact that “some promising products” were in different stages of development, as only a fraction of these will make it to market in a sector hampered by the small return on investment from successful antibiotic products, which has limited the interest of most large pharmaceutical companies.   “Overall, the clinical pipeline and recently approved antibiotics are insufficient to tackle the challenge of increasing emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance,” the UN agency concluded.  Driving research  To promote investment in antibiotics development, WHO and partner Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) have set up the Global Antibiotic R&D Partnership (GARDP) to develop innovative treatments.   The UN health agency has also been working closely with other non-profit funding partners such as the CARB-X to accelerate antibacterial research.  Another important new WHO-partnered initiative is the AMR Action Fund, that was set up by pharmaceutical companies, philanthropists and the European Investment Bank; its aim is to strengthen and accelerate antibiotic development through pooled funding.