Exclusive: Coronavirus could fuel a superbugs timebomb

Coronavirus risks fuelling the spread of superbugs due to the "excessive use" of antibiotics to treat sick patients, England's former chief medical officer has warned.

In her first major intervention during the virus pandemic, Dame Sally Davies urged hospitals to avoid over-using antibiotic drugs while attempting to prevent coronavirus patients from catching secondary infections.

Antimicrobial resistance – where antibiotics no longer work for some serious infections – already poses a greater threat to humanity than coronavirus, Dame Sally warned.

In an article for The Telegraph, co-written with Thomas Cueni, the director general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, Dame Sally warned: "Antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, already has the potential to be as catastrophic (possibly more so) as coronavirus if insufficient action is taken in time.

"We are starting to see evidence of an excessive use of antibiotics for prevention or treatment of coronavirus infections, as well as secondary infections that affect coronavirus  patients.

"While coronavirus  is a new virus, AMR is a threat we have known for years. It is a predictable and preventable crisis, and we should be clear on the extent of the risk that humanity is facing if we don't act in time."

According to recent research published in the Lancet, around half of people who die from coronavirus suffer a secondary infection, usually in the later stages of the disease.

Around 95 per cent of coronavirus  patients admitted to hospital are given antibiotics, either to treat an existing infection or to prevent one occurring.

"While only a small proportion suffer from secondary infections that would require use of antibiotics in treatment, data from healthcare systems around the world show how antibiotics have been used on almost all of the coronavirus  patients who are put on ventilators to provide protection from secondary infections," Dame Sally said.

Dame Sally, who became the UK's Special Envoy on Antimicrobial Resistance after leaving the post of CMO last June, has long warned of the dangers of needlessly treating patients with antibiotics.

Between 2014 and 2017, during her tenure as CMO, the amount of antibiotics consumed in England dropped six per cent, from 23 defined daily doses per 1,000 per day to 21.1.

To help solve the problem, an alliance of more than 20 leading pharmaceutical companies has launched the AMR Action Fund, with an initial investment of nearly $1 billion. The goal is to bring two to four new antibiotics to market in the next decade.

"This multilateral effort is a potential game-changer," Dame Sally said.