Antibiotic-resistant bugs claim over 200k infants globally per year, study finds. The study recruited over 3 200 babies in 19 hospitals in 11 countries – South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Greece, Italy, Bangladesh, Brazil and China
“The death of a child affects us all. Witnessing the loss of a newborn baby who has sepsis is terribly traumatic, especially so when antibiotics used to treat the child are ineffective,” says neonatologist Professor Sithembiso Velaphi.
Professor Sithembiso Velaphi, head of paediatrics at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Johannesburg. Photo: Kim Cloete for GARDP Of the 40 antibiotics approved for use in adults since 2000, only four have included dosing information for neonates in their labelling. Currently, 43 adult antibiotic clinical trials are recruiting patients, compared to only six trials recruiting neonates, researchers say.
Many doctors have had to opt for last-line antibiotics, such as carbapenems, because of the high degree of antibiotic resistance in their units or because they were the only treatment available. “There is a major problem of infection control, specifically related to high-risk babies – sick babies with complications who need interventions, such as drips and even surgery.
It’s planned that the trial will be expanded to other countries and regions in 2024 with the aim of recruiting 3 000 newborns. The PRACTical design has been specifically developed to address these challenges in important public health emergencies, such as neonatal sepsis. “And even for those that we have, we are still not 100% sure how to dose these drugs to get accurate concentrations in the blood and to also make sure that the outcomes in these babies are as good as can be. This trial will help give us confidence that we are delivering more effective treatment.”
The tools are expected to help prevent the often excessive and inappropriate use of antibiotics for over too long a period, which compounds the problem of antibiotic resistance globally.“It’s sometimes difficult for a clinician to know whether a baby actually has neonatal sepsis because it can present very subtly and not always with the same symptoms,” Bekker explains.
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