HEALTHTopping the most-wanted list: Drugs to fight the superbugsCongress and the FDA can step in to provide incentives to drug firms for the development of new antimicrobials, says an infectious diseases group.By Susan J. Landers, amednews staff. Aug. 9, 2004. Washington -- Twelve-year-old Nicholas Johnson sprained his shoulder at football practice near his Stafford, Texas, home last fall. Three days later he was hospitalized with a life-threatening methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection. His story highlights the fact that MRSA can be a threat to young, healthy people, according to infectious diseases experts. An ongoing University of Texas study of children with community-acquired staph infections has found that nearly 70% were infected with a methicillin-resistant strain. It also calls attention to the fact that drug-resistant bacteria continue to pose a major public health threat, particularly because there are very few new antibiotics now in development that can fight these deadly pathogens. The number of antibacterial agents approved by the Food and Drug Administration dropped precipitously between 1983 and 2002, according to a study published in the May 1 issue of the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. Since 1998, only 10 new antibiotics have been approved, and only two are novel agents that have a new target of action. "There simply aren't enough new drugs in the pharmaceutical pipeline to keep pace with the evolution of drug-resistant bacteria, the so-called 'superbugs,' " said Joseph R. Dalovisio, MD, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America at a July 21 Capitol Hill briefing. "This crisis has the potential to touch us all because drug-resistant infections can strike anyone -- young or old, healthy or chronically ill," said Dr. Dalovisio, who heads the infectious diseases section of the Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans. [...]Full text of American Medical News content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2004 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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