Lack of antibiotics in low income countries 'worsening superbugs threat'
The article begins with a snapshot into the lack of access to antibacterial and antifungal medicines in low- to middle-income countries:
In less wealthy countries, when the best antibiotics are unavailable, doctors are often forced to use inferior drugs or delay treatment, leading to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria.
The author then highlights that, of the 13 newly developed antibiotics reported, only three are available in 10 or more of the world’s 102 low- and middle-income countries, with many older, but still effective antibiotics also unavailable.
In response to the lack of access, Jayasree K Iyer, Executive Director of the Access to Medicine Foundation, stressed the need for companies and public sector organisations to work together to combat the rise of superbugs, and held up a subscription-based “Netflix model” as a way of spurring on drugmakers to invest more in new treatments.