Drugmakers urged to give poorer nations access to more antibiotics

Access to Medicine Foundation said to much of the attention had so far been on developing new antibiotics and other drugs to tackle ‘superbugs’. Photograph: AlexRaths/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Drugmakers are being urged to make more antibiotics and antifungal drugs available to low- and middle-income countries as drug resistance rises faster than expected globally.

Infections that are resistant to drugs can spread rapidly without people’s access to essential antibiotics and antifungals that treat serious systemic infections such as cryptococcal meningitis, a type of meningitis caused by a fungus.