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| The World Health Organization (WHO) has said superbugs are one of the biggest threats to the human race. It has named H. pylori - heavily linked to peptic ulcers and gastric cancer - among the most dangerous |
●Experts measured resistance rates of
Helicobacter pylori against antibiotics ●Rates against clarithromycin
jumped from 10% in 1998 to almost 22% last year ●Professor Francis Megraud,
author of the study, said the trend was ‘alarming’
Antibiotic resistance to a cancer-causing superbug has more than doubled in the space of two decades, scientists have warned. Rates of resistance of Helicobacter pylori against clarithromycin jumped from under 10 per cent in 1998 to almost 22% in 2018.
Professor Francis Megraud, a microbiologist at the University of Bordeaux, France, and lead author of the study, described the trend as 'alarming'. His team looked at clarithromycin, levofloxacin and metronidazole - the major anti-microbials used to kill H. pylori.
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Rates of resistance of
Helicobacter pylori against clarithromycin jumped from under 10%in 1998 to
almost 22% in 2018
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In the first study of its kind, they analyzed
their effect on 1,232 patients scattered across 18 countries in Europe,
including Ireland. The World Health Organization (WHO) has said
superbugs are one of the biggest threats to the human race. It has named aggressive strains of H. pylori -
heavily linked to peptic ulcers and gastric cancer - among the most
dangerous.
Professor Megraud said: 'H. pylori infection is
already a complex condition to treat, requiring a combination of medications.' He
said resistance rates for common antibiotics such as clarithromycin
increase at an 'alarming rate of nearly 1% per year. Treatment options for H.
pylori will become progressively limited and ineffective if novel treatment
strategies remain undeveloped. The reduced efficacy of current therapies could
maintain the high incidence rates of gastric cancer and other conditions such
as peptic ulcer disease, if drug resistance continues to increase at this
pace.'
H. pylori is one of the most common infections, present
in up to one in two people.
It can cause inflammation of the stomach lining,
or gastritis, leading to peptic ulcers. The condition effects up to one in
fifteen people in the UK alone. The bacteria is also one of the most important
risk factors for gastric cancer, also known as stomach cancer - the third
leading cause of cancer death worldwide.
In recent years, H. pylori antibiotic resistance
has become a prominent and urgent issue across the globe.
In Ireland, a quarter of patients (25.6%) were
resistant to clarithromycin, the main drug for the bacteria - compared to just
one in 20 (5%) in Denmark. Only five other nations fared worse - Italy (36.9%),
Croatia (34.6%), Greece (30%), Poland (28.5%) and Bulgaria (26.9%). The UK
was not looked at in the study, presented at a meeting in Barcelona held by the
United European Gastroenterology.
Professor Megraud’s team now plan to compare the
data with the level of antibiotic consumption in the individual
countries. Prof Mario Dinis-Ribeiro, the president of the European Society
of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, said: 'The findings are certainly concerning.
'H. pylori is the main cause of peptic disease
and gastric cancer. The increasing resistance of H. pylori to a number of
commonly-used antibiotics may jeopardize prevention strategies.'
England's outgoing chief
medical officer Professor Dame Sally Davies has warned antibiotic resistance
risks 'putting medicine back in the dark ages'.
Originally published on DAILY MAIL UK
