Diagnostic tests to mitigate the antimicrobial resistance pandemic—Still the problem child
Cecilia Ferreyra, Birgitta Gleeson, Otridah Kapona, Marc Mendelson
Abstract
The UK Government's 2015 Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Review Seven years on, this remains purely aspirational, and diagnostics continue to be the problem child of the AMR pandemic. COVID-19 has demonstrated just how far we still are from such a goal; despite rapid diagnostics for COVID-19 being developed within months of identification of SARS-CoV-2, the virus was able to drive global, large-scale inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for unsubstantiated bacterial coinfection, just as the common cold and other respiratory viral infections have done for decades. Indeed, despite a pooled prevalence of bacterial or fungal coinfection in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 in single figures Tellingly, during the first wave of the pandemic in the UK, only 18% of hospitalized patients underwent a diagnostic test to confirm bacterial infection A lack of understanding of the value of diagnostics tests in directing appropriate antimicrobial use, coupled with fear of COVID-19 infection, also directly increased over-the-counter use of antimicrobials in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) where antimicrobial control and access to healthcare is limited