Andreoni (Simit): “The search for reserve antibiotics is complex and difficult”

“Antimicrobial resistance (Amr) is a phenomenon in which bacteria become resistant to available antibiotics” which therefore “do not work on the infection”. Currently we have “‘reserve’ antibiotics available, which” however must be used “with great parsimony, only in cases of extreme necessity”. For this reason “innovative drugs would be needed, but the search for new molecules” effective in this type of infection “is difficult and complex”. Massimo Andreoni, scientific director of Simit (Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases) and professor emeritus of Infectious Diseases at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, said this while participating in the talk ‘Antimicrobial resistance. The challenge of investing in research’, available on the web and social channels of Adnkronos.

Amr “is a huge problem because”, if the trend is not reversed, “it is estimated that in 2050 it will become the leading cause of death” worldwide, “with more than 8 million related deaths per year and at least 2 million directly due to Amr – continues Andreoni – It is a pandemic phenomenon, because it affects the whole world. Obviously we must try to make an effort to create new strategies to combat this phenomenon”. Currently, however, “we only have 5 reserve antibiotics. Clearly we need others that allow us to overcome this problem, also because already today there are germs that are resistant even to reserve antibiotics. Research, in this respect, must give us new weapons. But it is a very big challenge”, he underlines, “because finding a molecule that is effective against germs that are multi-resistant to the many antibiotics we have is a very complicated and very difficult research job”. Making the arrival of new drugs even more painful is the fact that, “once developed, the antibiotic effective in the reserve class”, unlike what happens with other drugs, “cannot be widely used, but must be conserved as much as possible” to prevent it from becoming ineffective. Clearly “such a context greatly discourages pharmaceutical industries from doing this research. Hence the need to find solutions that instead motivate research in this area”.

The fight against antibiotic resistance “is a priority at the global public health level”, Andreoni points out. The topic is in fact under the attention of the G7 scheduled to take place in Ancona in early October. “The goal is to understand how different states are addressing this issue to find new solutions. In this sense, Italy in particular must work hard – the professor underlines – In Europe it is in fact the country with the highest rate of multi-resistant germs, with one of the highest rates of infection related to multi-resistant germs in hospitals and also with the highest rate of inappropriate use of antibiotics. For this reason – he concludes – it is essential to find solutions shared with all the other countries”.