Julian calls for action on antibiotic resistance
July 16, 2014
Yesterday in Parliament, Julian called on the Government to do more to tackle the growing danger of antibiotic resistance.
Speaking in the House of Commons during the Health debate, Julian asked “I very much welcome the Government’s international lead on antibiotic resistance, led by the Prime Minister. Does my hon. Friend agree that increasing the unit price of antibiotics and tackling their growing misuse in developing countries is absolutely vital if we are not to face a return to the medical dark ages?”
In response, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health, Jane Ellison MP, replied by saying “We are leading cross-Government action to address antimicrobial resistance—AMR—at national and global levels. We published details of how we will measure the success of the UK’s AMR strategy, and we will publish an annual progress report in November. We are considering recommendations in the Science and Technology Committee’s AMR report. I gave evidence to that Committee and we will publish our response in September.
“My hon. Friend is quite right to highlight this as a major challenge facing us. I pay tribute to the chief medical officer and to the Prime Minister for the international leadership they have given on this. He will be pleased to hear that the antibiotics market will be considered in its totality by the O’Neill review, which was announced by the Prime Minister on 2 July. It is of course important to bear in mind that while we look at tackling global antibiotic misuse, we need to balance the need for global conservation measures with accessibility for lower-income countries.
Julian welcomed the response. He said “The Minister’s detailed reply is reassuring. I am pleased that the Government is taking a lead on this vitally important issue as the prospect of a world where antibiotics have little impact is not worth thinking about. Sadly, antibiotic resistance is estimated to cause around 5,000 deaths every year in British hospitals and the National Health Service has rightly adopted a wide variety of stringent infection-control measures to tackle the problem. However, we must not lose sight of the wider issue that antibiotics are being wrongly administered in many countries, increasing antibiotic resistance. By promoting best practice across the globe we can be sure to safeguard and build on the great medical advances we have made in recent times.”
