Scientists in Germany discovered that a quarter of drugs given to humans inhibit the growth of bacteria in the stomach. Statins, hayfever pills and other common drugs may all be fueling the worrying rise of antibiotic resistance, ‘scary’ research suggests.
This is allowing bacteria to turn into superbugs and become resistant to life-saving drugs in the same way as antibiotics.
Antibiotic resistance is deemed to be one of the biggest threats to humanity and has been cited as severe as terrorism and global warming.
Scientists in Germany discovered that a quarter of drugs given to humans, including statins, inhibit the growth of bacteria in the stomach
Antibiotics have been doled out unnecessarily by GPs and hospital staff for decades, fueling once harmless bacteria to become superbugs.
But the new research into the effects of 1,000 common drugs on 40 strains of gut bacteria suggests there may be other factors fueling the resistance.
It showed simvastatin – dished out by GPs in England more than 27 million times in 2017 – was one of the most harmful on human gut bacteria.
Tamoxifen – a type of hormone therapy used to treat breast cancer – and loratadine – an antihistamine used in hayfever – were also listed as offenders.
WHAT IS ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE?
Antibiotics have been doled out unnecessarily by GPs and hospital staff for decades, fueling once harmless bacteria to become superbugs.
The World Health Organization has previously warned if nothing is done the world was headed for a ‘post-antibiotic’ era.
It claimed common infections, such as chlamydia, will become killers without immediate answers to the growing crisis.
Bacteria can become drug resistant when people take incorrect doses of antibiotics, or they are given out unnecessarily.
Chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies claimed in 2016 that the threat of antibiotic resistance is as severe as terrorism.
Figures estimate that superbugs will kill ten million people each year by 2050, with patients succumbing to once harmless bugs.
Around 700,000 people already die yearly due to drug-resistant infections including tuberculosis (TB), HIV and malaria across the world.
Concerns have repeatedly been raised that medicine will be taken back to the ‘dark ages’ if antibiotics are rendered ineffective in the coming years.
In addition to existing drugs becoming less effective, there have only been one or two new antibiotics developed in the last 30 years.
In September, the World Health Organisation warned antibiotics are ‘running out’ as a report found a ‘serious lack’ of new drugs in the development pipeline.
Without antibiotics, caesarean sections, cancer treatments and hip replacements would also become incredibly ‘risky’, it was said at the time.
Dr Nassos Typas, of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, said: ‘This is scary considering that we take many non-antibiotic drugs in our life, often for long periods.
‘We actually see drugs from all therapeutic classes impacting gut microbes.
‘The most prominent from them are antipsychotics, antihypertensives, anti-cancer drugs, proton-pump inhibitors, antihistamines, painkillers and contraceptives. ’
Evidence has shown for decades that antibiotics can damage the microbiome – the collective term for bacteria in the gut.
But scientists were, until now, yet to prove other drugs could also have an impact. Their study was based on suspicions.
Professor Peer Bork, co-author of the study, said: ‘The number of unrelated drugs that hit gut microbes as collateral damage was surprising. ’
And he claimed that the actual number of drugs that may fuel antibiotic resistance ‘is likely’ to be even higher than what they found.
The findings, published in the scientific journal Nature, follow a host of warnings from experts across the world about superbugs.
The World Health Organization previously stated that if nothing is done to combat the problem then the world was headed for a ‘post-antibiotic’ era.
It claimed common infections, such as chlamydia, will become killers without immediate answers to the growing crisis.
Bacteria can become drug resistant when people take incorrect doses of antibiotics, or they are given out unnecessarily.
England’s chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies claimed in 2016 that the threat of antibiotic resistance is as severe as terrorism.
Figures estimate that superbugs will kill ten million people each year by 2050, with patients succumbing to once harmless bugs.
Around 700,000 people already die yearly due to drug-resistant infections including tuberculosis (TB), HIV and malaria across the world.
