Antibiotics for common childhood infections no longer effective: Study

NEW DELHI: Drugs to treat common infections in children and babies are no longer effective in large parts of the world, including India, due to high rates of antibiotic resistance, a study has found.

The team led by researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia found many antibiotics recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) had less than 50 per cent effectiveness in treating childhood infections such as pneumonia, sepsis (bloodstream infections) and meningitis.

The findings, published in The Lancet regional Health-Southeast Asia journal, show global guidelines on antibiotic use are outdated and need updates.

The most seriously affected regions are in Southeast Asia and the Pacific where thousands of unnecessary deaths in children resulting from antibiotic resistance occur each year, the researchers said.

The WHO has declared that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity. In newborns, an estimated three million cases of sepsis occur globally each year, with up to 570,000 (5.7 lakh) deaths. Many of these are due to lack of effective antibiotics to treat resistant bacteria.

The study adds to mounting evidence that common bacteria responsible for sepsis and meningitis in children are often resistant to prescribed antibiotics.

The research shows the urgent need for global antibiotic guidelines to be updated, to reflect the rapidly evolving rates of AMR. The most recent guidelines from the WHO were published in 2013.

The study found that one antibiotic in particular, ceftriaxone, was likely to be effective in treating only one in three cases of sepsis or meningitis in newborn babies.

Another antibiotic, gentamicin, was found likely to be effective in treating fewer than half of all sepsis and meningitis cases in children, according to the researchers.

Gentamicin is commonly prescribed alongside aminopenicillins, which the study showed also has low effectiveness in combating bloodstream infections in babies and children.

“Antibiotic resistance is rising more rapidly than we realise,” said study lead author Phoebe Williams from the University of Sydney.