The 'Silent Pandemic' Putting Kids at Risk

Bacterial infections that commonly affect children are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, causing infant deaths to rise

- JESS THOMSON

ANTIBIOTICS USED TO TREAT COMmon childhood ailments are becoming less and less effective, according to a new study.

Many of the antibiotics often used to treat infections like pneumonia, sepsis (bloodstream infections) and meningitis, which children often contract, are now less than 50 percent effective, the study published in the journal The Lancet Regional HealthSoutheast Asia says.

The regions most affected by this are Southeast Asia and the Pacific, including Indonesia and the Philippines. Antibiotics in the United States are also getting less effective.

"It is already affecting us in the U.S. This has been deemed a silent pandemic," André O. Hudson, a professor of biochemistry at Rochester Institute of Technology, tells Newsweek.

The Problem with Antibiotics

Antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, is one of the top 10 public health threats, according to the World Health Organization. Illnesses like sepsis kill over 500,000 newborns worldwide every year, with many of these being attributed to antibiotic resistance.

"The WHO, G7 and World Economic Forum all formally recognize antimicrobial resistance as a global threat to human health. We depend on antibiotics for so much of modern medicine, including all kinds of invasive surgeries (like hip and knee replacements, tumor removal), protecting those who are immunocompromised such as cancer patients or premature babies the list is long," Lori L. Burrows, a professor of biochemistry and biomedical sciences at the MDG Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University, says.