GENEVA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) has outlined the biggest revision in 40 years on the use of antibiotics to fight the development of drug-resistant bacteria, according to the body's press release on Wednesday.
The WHO Model Lists of Essential Medicines, which includes selected medicines to satisfy the priority health care needs of the population, has been updated every two years since 1977.
In the biggest revision of the antibiotics section in the lists, experts have grouped antibiotics into three categories -- access, watch and reserve.
Antibiotics in the access group should be available at all times as treatments for a wide range of common infections, like amoxicillin which is used to treat infections such as pneumonia.
The watch group, the use of which should be dramatically reduced to avoid further development of resistance, includes antibiotics that are recommended as first or second choice when treating a small number of infections, like ciprofloxacin in treating cystitis and upper respiratory tract infections.
The third group, reserve, including antibiotics such as colistin and some cephalosporins, should be considered last-resort options and used only in the most severe circumstances when all other alternatives have failed, such as for life-threatening infections due to multidrug-resistant bacteria.
"The rise in antibiotic resistance stems from how we are using -- and misusing -- these medicines," said Dr Suzanne Hill, Director of Essential Medicines and Health Products. "The new WHO list should help health system planners and prescribers ensure people who need antibiotics have access to them, and ensure they get the right one, so that the problem of resistance doesn't get worse."
Antimicrobial resistance is threatening the effective prevention and treatment of an ever-increasing range of infections, according to the WHO, as lack of effective antibiotics would compromise the success of major surgery and cancer chemotherapy. Globally, 480 000 people develop multi-drug resistant tuberculosis each year, and drug resistance is starting to complicate the fight against HIV and malaria as well.
Early in February, the WHO published its first ever list of antibiotic-resistant "priority pathogens" -- a catalogue of 12 families of bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health, in a bid to guide and promote research and development of new antibiotics.
The list highlighted in particular the threat of gram-negative bacteria that are resistant to multiple antibiotics. These bacteria have built-in abilities to find new ways to resist treatment and can pass along genetic material that allows other bacteria to become drug-resistant as well.
Also in the latest revision on Wednesday, the WHO added 10 antibiotics to the list for adults, and 12 for children.
The organization said the change aims to ensure antibiotics are available when needed and that the right antibiotics are prescribed for the right infections, during the ongoing fight against the development of drug resistance.
