Use Covid-19 Lessons To Battle Deadly Superbugs: WHO

Lessons learned during the Covid-19 pandemic should be used to fight the spread of drug-resistant bacteria, which kill tens of thousands of people each year, the World Health Organization said Thursday

Geneva, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Apr, 2021 ) :Lessons learned during the Covid-19 pandemic should be used to fight the spread of drug-resistant bacteria, which kill tens of thousands of people each year, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

The UN health agency warned that the world was running out of options for fighting so-called superbugs, with few new effective antibiotics in the pipeline.

But it said that the coronavirus crisis, which had dramatically deepened the global understanding of the health and economic implications of an uncontrolled pandemic, could spur progress.

The worldwide push to rein in the pandemic had proven that rapid progress can be made when there is enough political will, the WHO pointed out.

"Antibiotics present the Achilles heel for universal health coverage and our global health security," Haileyesus Getahun, who heads the WHO's antimicrobial resistance division, warned in a statement.

"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." Among other things, he said, there should be a global mechanism to pool funding to battle the scourge of antimicrobial resistance, along the same lines as the mechanisms created to fund the development of Covid-19 vaccines.

Antibiotic resistance happens when bugs become immune to existing drugs, like antibiotics, antivirals or antifungals, rendering minor injuries and common infections potentially deadly.

Resistance has grown in recent years due to overuse of such drugs in humans and also in farm animals.