Source: MEATINGPLACE, 7/14/14

Global use of antibiotics is rising rapidly, especially in developing countries, driving increased resistance to drugs used to combat both common and rare illnesses, according to Princeton University researchers who studied a decade’s worth of pharmacy sales data for 71 countries.

The scientists found a 36 percent rise in worldwide antibiotic use between 2000 and 2010, with cephalosporins, broad-spectrum penicillins and fluoroquinolones accounting for more than half of the increase among 16 groups of antibiotics studied.
They also found increasing resistance to carbapenems and polymixins, two classes of drugs considered last resort antibiotics for illnesses without any other known treatment.

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa were responsible for more than three-quarters of the surge. U.S. antibiotic consumption was flat, but Americans on a per capita basis still account for far more antibiotic consumption than any other population, according to the study, which was published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

"We have to remember that before we had antibiotics, it was pretty easy to die of a bacterial infection," study author Ramanan Laxminarayan of Princeton said in a news release. "And we're choosing to go back into a world where you won't necessarily get better from a bacterial infection. It's not happening at a mass scale, but we're starting to see the beginning of when the antibiotics are not working as well."

The report’s authors said programs promoting rational use of antibiotics should be a national and global priority. Laxminarayan suggested that a universally adopted algorithm for prescribing antibiotics might help assure their appropriate use. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, National Institutes of Health and the Princeton University Grand Challenges Program funded the research.

Antibiotics debate heats up
Beyond the Princeton report, U.S. officials and other nations are reconsidering the use of antibiotics in animals moving forward.
President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) will soon forward a new report on antibiotic resistance that looks at the role of agriculture that its authors developed with the help of major agriculture companies, public health officials and the scientific public. One of the PCAST panel members said in a statement that there should be a decrease in the use of antibiotics for animal growth as a result of the report, according to a report from Food Safety News.

Meanwhile, the FDA will hold a public meeting next month to discuss antimicrobial resistance monitoring in the nation’s food supply in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the USDA. The sessions on Aug. 12 and 13 will include comparisons of new and old methods of sampling for antibiotic-resistant bacteria at the time of slaughter.

Recently, officials in Belgium reported a second consecutive annual decline in the use of antibiotics in animals. The Belgian Federal Agency for Medicines and Health products reported that the total use of antibiotics in animals fell by nearly 7 percent between 2012 and 2013 and by nearly 13 percent between 2011 and 2013. This fifth-annual report included antibacterial medicines and antibacterial premixes used in medicated animal feed.

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