WHO maps dangerous misuse of antibiotics

GENEVA: The World Health Organization warned Monday that antibiotics consumption is dangerously high in some countries, while a shortage in others is spurring risky misuse, driving the emergence of deadly superbug infections.

In a first, the United Nations health agency said it had collated data on antibiotic use across large parts of the world and had found huge differences in consumption. The report, based on 2015 data from 65 countries and regions, showed a significant difference in consumption rates from as low as around four so-called defined daily doses (DDD) per 1,000 inhabitants per day in Burundi to more than 64 in Mongolia.

"The large difference in antibiotic use worldwide indicates that some countries are probably overusing antibiotics while other countries may not have sufficient access to these life-saving medicines," WHO warned in a statement. Discovered in the 1920s, antibiotics have saved tens of millions of lives by defeating bacterial diseases such as pneumonia, tuberculosis and meningitis.

But over the decades, bacteria have learned to fight back, building resistance to the same drugs that once reliably vanquished them. The WHO has repeatedly warned the world is running out of effective antibiotics, and last year urged governments.