The incidence of antibiotic resistance is here and is increasing at a higher pace globally. The patients visiting hospital for treatment nowadays end up losing life because of deadly infections caused by drug resistant bacteria, especially Gram-negative bacteria. Further, low financial investment and lack of innovation in the development of new antibiotics is further boosting the process. The high-priority pathogens list by World Health Organization (WHO) has several multidrug resistant, Gram-negative microorganisms such as carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacterales. Here the bigger challenge is that the treatment options become limited as the existing antibiotics become ineffective.
Fortunately, in the last six years, there has been progress in this direction as mentioned in the recent study conducted by Yusuf et al. (2021) that sheds some light of hope. It has been highlighted that new antibiotics have been developed that got approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medical Agency (EMA). The data for the study was obtained from the website of FDA and EMA and the list of antibiotics include Plazomicin, Eravacycline, Cefiderocol; Ceftazidime/Avibactam, Ceftolozane/Tazobactam, Meropenem/Vaborbactam, and Imipenem-Cilastatin/Relebactam. The key aim of the study was to review the in vitro activities of new antibiotics against ESBL and CPE microorganisms. The results from the present study indicated that many of these new antibiotics are more active than other older antibiotics. For instance, the efficacy of Ceftazidime was found to be less active than Ceftazidime/Avibactam, and the potency of Eravacycline was 2 to 4 times more than Tigecycline against Enterobacterales.
These results set the hope for a healthy future; however few points must be kept in mind. The non-availability of the antimicrobial sensitivity test in a clinical microbiology laboratory leading to the misuse of new antibiotics. Further, the need for the implementation of the combination therapy to lessen the chances of resistance against the multi-drug resistant infections must be taken into consideration.
To learn more, please visit the website of Journal of Clinical Medicine (Link).
