A review has said that more antibiotics are urgently needed, as emerging alternative treatments will not be able to fight antimicrobial resistance in the short term.
The study, published on 12 January in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, calls on governments spend more on developing more antibiotics and to work to preserve the efficacy of those that are already available.
The review—which was commissioned by the Wellcome Trust and funded by the trust the Department of Health—looks at 19 alternatives to antibiotics that are being developed, such as preventative measures based on live microorganisms. Several such alternatives are in phase II or phase III trials, and the authors say that they have the potential to fight bacterial infections eventually.
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