Financial Times Letter to the Editor

Superbugs threaten the longevity miracle


Your editorial “War on superbugs must follow defeat of Covid-19” (FT View, December 29) is exactly right on the facts, but misses three powerful if subtle points.

First, the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis is already here especially for older adults, who will number 2bn by mid-century and represent increasingly larger proportions of societies at risk in countless under-reported ways.

For example, hip, knee and heart valve replacements, cancer therapy or simple hospital visits are already avoided due to the greater risk of untreatable, often deadly infections.

Second, while the policy reforms in the US Pasteur Act are essential this must be replicated in the UK, across Europe and in Japan so that there re-emerges a truly global marketplace for the antibiotic innovation we so desperately want to enable.

Third, while to inner circle elites the AMR threat might well have been “rising up the global health priorities pre-Covid-19”, it has neither been recognised as the profound economic threat we now understand from Covid-19, nor entered the daily social and popular media.

Yes, the antibiotic revolution along with improved sanitation of the mid-20th century largely fuelled today’s longevity miracle of life to 100 as a matter of course. Antibiotics enabled billions to live past birth and early infancy and cured deadly infections as we aged.

How ironic as 2021 launches the UN/World Health Organization Decade of Healthy Ageing that one of the central reasons for our 20th century longevity miracle — antibiotics — is now threatened to extinction.

Michael W. Hodin
Chief Executive of the Global Coalition on Ageing,
Managing Partner High Lantern Group,
Regent at Harris Manchester College, Oxford University, UK

Source: Financial Times

Latest Developments

We keep our members and partners in touch with the most recent updates and opinions in the worldwide dialogue on population longevity and related issues.

Brazil Must Fight Antibiotic Resistance

The threat posed by antimicrobial resistance is urgent and spares no country - including Brazil. According to The Lancet, 63 deaths per 100,000 are associated with AMR in Brazil and Paraguay, a rate that exceeds the average for Latin America and the Caribbean. AMR-associated deaths in Brazil are second only to cardiovascular diseases and cancers.

We Missed 100 Million Adult Vaccines – Here’s How We Get Back on Track

Like other pandemics throughout human history, COVID-19 has caused profound changes that are still rippling through our societies, even as people are understandably eager to move on. In fact, these impacts are all the more dangerous when they are largely ignored or effectively invisible. The decline in adult vaccination may be one of the most significant, as a new report finds that ~100 million doses were missed in 2021 and 2022 alone – reversing global progress towards widespread adult immunisation as a new standard of care in a world of more old than young.

New Analysis Shows Lost Ground on Adult Immunisation During the Pandemic with 100 Million Doses Potentially Missed

New data shared today by GSK, in collaboration with the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science and the Global Coalition on Aging (GCOA), estimate approximately 100 million fewer doses of some adult vaccines (excluding Covid-19 vaccines) were administered in 2021 and 2022 than anticipated, based on the global vaccination adoption trends observed from 2013 to 2020, compounding already low adoption rates pre-pandemic.

Going Beyond Applause: The Potential of Caregiving to Unlock Job Opportunities of the Future

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of caregivers – staff and family who provide care for older and dependent people to carry out activities such as eating or moving - catapulted to the front of our collective conscience. The daily applause for front-line care workers showed a high level of recognition for their incredible work and provided insight into how our health systems must change as our society ages. We need to continue to recognise caregivers as essential to our ageing society.

High-Level Forum on the Silver Economy 2023

Join us for the High-Level Forum on the Silver Economy 2023. Now in its fourth year, the Silver Economy Forum 2023, December 6 and 7, will explore aging at every stage of life, looking at the growing global Silver Economy through a multigenerational lens. Linking to the goals and aspirations of the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing, SEF 2023 will highlight key themes at the intersection of aging at every age, and the Silver Economy.

Global Coalition on Aging Workshop Calls on G7 Countries to Fund Pull Incentives to Spur Antibiotic Innovation

The Global Coalition on Aging, in partnership with JPMA, today announced the release of its workshop report on the AMR crisis facing G7 countries and the world, “The Value of Pull Incentives in Japan to Encourage Investment in Antibiotic Innovation to Solve the AMR Crisis.” If strong action is not taken to address AMR, we will lose the antibiotics we need to cure infections, which is likely to outpace cancer as a major cause of death, killing an estimated 10 million by 2050.