WHO warns overuse of antibiotics for Covid-19 will cause more deaths

The increased use of
antibiotics to combat the Covid-19 pandemic will strengthen bacterial
resistance and ultimately lead to more deaths during the crisis and beyond, the
World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
WHO director general
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday that a “worrying number” of bacterial
infections were becoming increasingly resistant to the medicines traditionally
used to treat them.
The UN health agency
said it was concerned that the inappropriate use of antibiotics during the
coronavirus crisis would further fuel the trend.
“The Covid-19 pandemic
has led to an increased use of antibiotics, which ultimately will lead to
higher bacterial resistance rates that will impact the burden of disease and
deaths during the pandemic and beyond,” Tedros told a virtual press conference
from the WHO’s Geneva headquarters.
The WHO said only a
small proportion of Covid-19 patients needed antibiotics to treat subsequent
bacterial infections.
The organisation has
issued guidance to medics not to provide antibiotic therapy or prophylaxis to
patients with mild Covid-19, or to patients with moderate illness without a
clinical suspicion of bacterial infection.
Tedros said the
guidelines should help tackle antimicrobial resistance while saving lives.
He called the threat of
antimicrobial resistance “one of the most urgent challenges of our time”.
“It’s clear that the world is losing
its ability to use critically important antimicrobial medicines,” he said.
Highlighting
inappropriate usage, he said there was an “overuse” of antibiotics in some
countries, while in low-income states such life-saving medicines were
unavailable “leading to needless suffering and death”.
Meanwhile the WHO said
the prevention and treatment of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) had been
severely disrupted since the Covid-19 pandemic began in December, following a
survey of 155 countries.
“This situation is of
significant concern because people living with NCDs are at higher risk of
severe Covid-19-related illness and death,” it said.
The survey, during a
three-week period in May, found that low-income countries were most affected.
Some 53% of countries
reported partially or completely disrupted services for hypertension treatment.
The figure was 49% for
diabetes treatment and related complications, 42% for cancer treatment, and 31%
for cardiovascular emergencies.
The most common reasons
for discontinuing or reducing services were cancellations of planned
treatments, a decrease in available public transport and a lack of staff
because health workers had been reassigned to Covid-19 treatment.
The WHO warned about the
dangers of mass gatherings, as protests rage in the United States and elsewhere
over the killing of unarmed black man George Floyd, and as sports events begin
a tentative resumption.
“Mass gatherings have the potential to
act as super-spreading events,” warned Tedros, highlighting WHO guidance
designed to help organisers determine how such events can be held safely.
The WHO was asked about
the street protests in the United States and the fear that they could increase
the spread of the virus.
“With increasing social mixing and
people coming together, particularly in areas if the virus is not under
control, that close contact between people can pose a risk,” answered the
organisation’s Covid-19 technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove – stressing that she
was speaking about mass gatherings in general.
People planning mass
events should undertake a “very serious, rigorous risk assessment”, she said.
“Physical distancing
remains a very important aspect to control and suppression of transmission of
Covid-19. This is not over yet,” Van Kerkhove said.