Staphylococcus aureus, antibiotic-resistant superbug
Humanity’s war against drug-resistant microorganisms is not going very well… A new study has revealed an alarming rise in superbugs in newborn babies.
Antibiotic resistance has quickly become one of the main causes of death for our species, being responsible for around 5 million deaths worldwide in 2019. This number already exceeds the annual total of deaths from HIV/AIDS or malaria, and the The danger of drug-resistant infections is only expected to increase.
According to a new study in the September issue of Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacificthese so-called superbugs can also be alarmingly prevalent in newborn babies.
So prevalent to the point that, for example, first-line treatments against sepsis are no longer effective against most bacterial infections.
As detailed by , researchers analyzed almost 15,000 blood samples collected, in Southeast Asia, from sick infants in 10 hospitals in five countries in the region, between 2019 and 2020.
The study revealed high rates of non-susceptibility to antibiotics frequently prescribed and recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for neonatal sepsis.
In the 10 hospitals included in this study, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) was alarmingly common among disease-causing bacteria.
“Our study highlights the causes of serious infections in babies in Southeast Asian countries with high rates of neonatal sepsis and reveals an alarming burden of AMR that renders many of the therapies currently available for newborns ineffective,” the study’s co-author tells Science Alert. Phoebe Williamspediatrician at the University of Sydney (Australia).
“Guidelines must be updated to reflect local bacterial profiles and known resistance patterns. Otherwise, Death rates will only continue to rise”, he adds.
A The situation is worsened by the shortage of new antibiotics being developed for babiesexplains, in turn, the co-author Michelle Harrisonfrom the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney.
“It takes around 10 years for a new antibiotic to be tested and approved for babies. With so few new drug candidates to start with, we need a significant investment in antibiotic development”, he warns.
Abundant Gram-negative bacteria, such as E. coli, Klebsiella e Acinetobacterwere responsible for almost 80% of the infections studied.
“These bacteria were long thought to cause infections only in older babies, but are now infecting babies in their first days of life,” Williams pointed out.
The urgency of neonatal sepsis rarely allows time for laboratory tests to identify the responsible agent, so doctors often make educated guesses based on published research. However, this seems to work less and less. At least, in less developed countries, such as those analyzed in this study.
