NEWS
2022 saw 3 million child deaths from AMR, study shows
A landmark study presented at ESCMID Global 2025 has revealed that over 3 million children worldwide lost their lives in 2022 due to antimicrobial resistance (AMR)-related infections. The study underscores the urgent need for both regional and global strategies to control paediatric AMR, particularly in high-burden areas such as South-East Asia and Africa. AMR poses a critical threat to children, who are highly vulnerable to infections. Access to new antibiotic formulations is often much more limited for children because of product development delays.
The study data found that in 2022 alone, more than 752,000 children in Southeast Asia and 659,000 children in Africa died of AMR-associated complications. Many of these deaths were linked to the use of ‘Watch’ antibiotics (drugs with a high risk of resistance) and ‘Reserve’ antibiotics (last-resort treatments for severe, multidrug-resistant infections). Between 2019 and 2021, the use of
Watch antibiotics increased by 160% in Southeast Asia and 126% in Africa. During the same period, the use of Reserve antibiotics rose by 45% in Southeast Asia and 125% in Africa. Globally, of the more than 3 million children’s deaths, 2 million were associated with the use of Watch and Reserve antibiotics.
“While the rise in use of Watch and Reserve antibiotics may be necessary in response to the concurrent rise in drug- resistant infections, the sharp rise in use of these drugs presents several serious long- term risks,” commented Professor Joseph Harwell, study co-author. “Their increased use, especially without careful oversight, elevates the risk of resistance and limits future treatment options. If bacteria develop resistance to these antibiotics, there will be few, if any, alternatives for treating multidrug-resistance infections.” Several factors contribute to the severity of AMR in low- and middle- income countries, including overcrowded hospitals, poor sanitation, and weak infection prevention measures that facilitate the spread of resistant pathogens within healthcare settings and communities. Due to a lack of diagnostic tools and concerns over misdiagnosis, overuse and misuse of antibiotics are also widespread in these regions.
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3D pathology results in more precise treatment
The preliminary results of a research collaboration between JelloX Biotech – a Taiwan-based startup at the forefront of cancer pathology – and the National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) on breast cancer patients shows that 3D pathology technology leads to more precise treatment for breast cancer patients. The project found that JelloX’s 3D pathology technology identified a significantly increased proportion of tumours with HER2-low and HER2-ultralow expression compared to conventional methods, demonstrating this technology’s increased sensitivity and potential as a diagnostic tool for HER2 detection in breast cancers. Pictured is a 3D fluorescent-stained image of mammary ducts from a breast cancer patient. Green areas indicate drug-targeted receptors. Unlike traditional 2D pathology, this reveals the spatial distribution of receptors, reducing the risk of misjudging treatment decisions. The difficulty of precisely determining
treatment for breast cancer has made the identification of HER2 expression essential. In HER2-low and HER2-ultralow metastatic breast cancer, the novel antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) Trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) has demonstrated robust efficacy over conventional chemotherapy. Yet
considering HER2 spatial heterogeneity, traditional diagnostic methods have shown to be less precise than 3D pathology in detecting the presence of the HER2 protein. “For the specific challenges posed by metastatic breast cancer and the need to identify predictive biomarkers accurately, the high sampling capacity of 3D pathology holds particular potential,” commented Dr Yen-Yin Lin, CEO of JelloX. “JelloX Biotech’s comprehensive HER2 diagnostic solution is poised to revolutionise HER2 diagnostics. With a more comprehensive data set on tumour samples, healthcare providers can be empowered to make more precise diagnoses, ensuring that the right patients receive the right treatment at the right time.”
The full findings were shared at the
Global Breast Cancer Conference, which took place in April, in South Korea.
WHO confirms MHRA medicines role
The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed the successful redesignation of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) Science and Research group as one of its Collaborating Centres for the Standardisation and Evaluation of Biologicals for the next four years.
This is critical for the work this group at the MHRA does on behalf of the WHO to develop, produce and distribute physical standards that are applied to assure the quality of biological medicines. The Science and Research group at the MHRA, and formerly the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC), was granted its first designation back in 1954, and is one of only four institutes worldwide that WHO
designates as a custodian laboratory for its International Biological Reference Preparations.
MHRA Interim Executive Director for Science and Research Nicola Rose is the Head of the Collaborating Centre. Nicola said: “Biological medicines are an increasingly important part of healthcare. Our role as the UK medicines regulator is to make sure the medicines people take are of an acceptable quality. Standards allow both the public and medical practitioners to have confidence in the quality of the medicines they use. Standards also can help enable manufacturers make use of new and innovative technologies – ensuring patients receive the most advanced treatments possible.”
MAY 2025
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