Giving a timeframe of 34 years, the British Chancellor George Osborne warns that urgent action is needed to address the rapidly deteriorating state of antibiotics worldwide.

As he presented to the International Monetary Fund this month, by 2050 ten million people could die annually due to growing antibiotic resistance worldwide, more than currently die from cancer. Chancellor Osborne went on to observe  that, ”unless we take global action, antimicrobial resistance will become an even greater threat to mankind than cancer currently is. It is not just a health problem but an economic one, too. The cost of doing nothing, both in terms of lives lost and money wasted, is too great, and the world needs to come together to agree on a common approach. We have to dramatically shift incentives for pharmaceutical companies and others to create a long-term solution to this problem, with new rewards, funded globally, that support the development of new antibiotics and ensure access to antibiotics in the developing world.”

Health Care Without Harm is calling on health care leaders, manufacturers, and the research community to look more closely at the increasingly common use of antimicrobials in healthcare furnishings. The new report by HCWH highlights the need for a better understanding of the costs and benefits of such widespread antimicrobials use in the fight against HAIs.

[Source: The Independent]