Antibiotics that fight deadly infections in babies are losing their power

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https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/11/07/1209109088/antibiotics-that-fight-deadly-infections-in-babies-are-losing-their-power

Antibiotics that fight deadly infections in babies are losing their power

November 7, 2023 12:38 PM ET
Max Barnhart

The drugs aren't working as well as they used to.

That's the sobering takeaway from new research published in The Lancet Regional Health – Southeast Asia last week: The most commonly prescribed antibiotics in Southeast Asia are now only 50% effective at treating sepsis and meningitis in newborns.

And that's a serious setback. Sepsis kills 1 in 5 patients. Meningitis is responsible for a quarter of million deaths a year – half among children under the age of 5. Overall, childhood infections are responsible for over 550,000 deaths each year.

Why aren't the drugs doing their job? It's because overuse of those drugs has led to the evolution of antimicrobial resistant infections – bacteria and other diseases that are no longer knocked out by treatment.

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Lancet article:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772368223001518?via%3Dihub#sec3
Coverage gaps in empiric antibiotic regimens used to treat serious bacterial infections in neonates and children in Southeast Asia and the Pacific

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1. It's not that the antibiotics are losing their power

It's that the pathogens they kill are getting stronger.