Michael Harris, chief executive officer of Biocomposites explores the threat of antibiotic resistance and how antibiotics are being used within the orthopaedics industry.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens the effective prevention and treatment of a range of infections caused by bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms and is considered one of the most serious global public health threats of this century. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared AMR one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity and states that AMR is responsible for 700,000 deaths annually, with the numbers increasing year on year by 4%. By 2050, it is believed that AMR could cause more than 10 million deaths a year (World Health Organisation, 2020). AMR is of particular importance especially in healthcare settings such as hospitals, where antibiotics are used routinely, and resistant strains can arise and spread easily (Prestinaci et al., 2015).
AMR management strategies are particularly urgent given the increase in antibiotic resistance. In recent times, bacteria associated with common or serious infection have developed resistance to newly approved antibiotics. This problem is exacerbated by a worldwide shortage of innovative antibiotics to deal with this challenge. The WHO 2021 antibiotic pipeline report indicates that eleven new antibiotics have been approved since 2017. Of these eleven antibiotics, only two represent a new class of antibiotic with a novel antimicrobial action (Shrestha et al., 2021). This slow development of antimicrobial agents has resulted in an acceleration of the emergence and spread of resistant organisms.