By Natalie Grover

LONDON (Reuters) -Increased drug resistance in bacteria causing bloodstream infections, including against last-resort antibiotics, was seen in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, a World Health Organization report based on data from 87 countries in 2020 showed.

The overuse and/or misuse of antibiotics has helped microbes to become resistant to many treatments, while the pipeline of replacement therapies in development is alarmingly sparse.

High levels (above 50%) of resistance have been reported in bacteria that typically cause life-threatening bloodstream infections in hospitals such as Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter spp, report authors highlighted on Friday.

These infections often require treatment with ‘last-resort’ antibiotics, drugs that are used when all other antibiotics fail.

About 8% of bloodstream infections caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae grew resistant to a vital last-resort group of drugs called carbapenems, the report said.

Rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) remain very high, but last-resort antibiotics are only just starting to lose potency, said Dr Carmem Pessoa-Silva, the lead for WHO Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System, in a media conference.

The message of hope, she said is, “we have a very narrow window of opportunity…for responding to the threat.”

While there is a concerted push to limit the unbridled use of antibiotics, the pace of new research remains grim.

The effort, cost and time it takes to get an antibiotic approved and the limited return on investment have deterred drugmakers, as treatments must be priced cheaply and are designed to be used as little as possible to limit drug resistance.

As a result, the lion’s share of antibiotic development is taking place in a handful of labs of small biopharma companies as a majority of their larger counterparts focus on more lucrative markets.

Only a few big pharmaceutical companies remain in the space — including GSK and Merck — down from more than 20 in the 1980s.

A landmark global analysis published earlier this year found that 1.2 million people died in 2019 due to antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, making AMR a leading cause of death worldwide, higher than HIV/AIDS or malaria.

“Political commitment (on AMR) must now urgently move from aspiration into action,” said Thomas Cueni, director general at International Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations.

The authors of the WHO report said more research is needed to identify the reasons behind the jump in AMR in the period studied, and to what extent it is linked to the accelerated use of antibiotics during the pandemic.

AMR rates also remain difficult to interpret due to insufficient testing and weak laboratory capacity, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, the authors wrote.

(Reporting by Natalie Grover in London; Editing by Barbara Lewis and Arun Koyyur)

Washington (AFP) – The White House on Monday condemned billionaire Elon Musk’s call for Anthony Fauci, the US infectious disease expert who is a hate figure for many on the right, to be prosecuted over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“These are incredibly dangerous, these personal attacks that we are seeing,” said White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, in response to the weekend tweet by Musk that subsequently went viral.

“They are disgusting and they are divorced from reality,” she said.

Musk, the owner of Twitter, took to the site Sunday to urge punishment for Fauci, who led the government’s approach to the pandemic when it hit the country in early 2020.

“My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” Musk said, tauntingly playing on the growing practice for people to indicate their preferred gender pronouns.

Musk also posted a meme showing Fauci telling US President Joe Biden, “Just one more lockdown, my king,” in apparent criticism of the coronavirus mitigation measures initially taken in parts of the country in the first year of the pandemic.

Conservatives including former president Donald Trump have made Fauci a focus of their criticisms of the government campaign to battle Covid, and he has faced death threats and had a security team assigned to protect him.

“These personal attacks that we’ve been seeing are dangerous on Dr. Fauci and other public health professionals as well,” said Jean-Pierre. 

“Dr. Fauci has served under seven Republican and Democratic presidents. We cannot forget that…. His work on infectious disease from HIV Aids to COVID has saved countless lives,” she said.

“We are fortunate, I should say, that he has devoted his career and his life and his exceptional talent to America’s public health.”

Republican lawmakers have pledged to grill Fauci when they take control of the House of Representatives in January, after locking horns repeatedly with the top immunologist over Covid vaccines, mask mandates and other pandemic-related issues.

Fauci, 81, is due to step down this month from his roles in government as Biden’s chief medical advisor, as well as director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, which he has headed since 1984.

In what was likely his final White House appearance in November, Fauci slammed the proliferation of bad health advice online and said the most difficult thing he had to deal with while helming America’s fight against Covid was the country’s polarization along political lines.

Daniel Craig is set to star in ‘Queer’.

The ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’ is attached to star in director Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ seminal 1985 novel of the same name, Deadline reports.

‘Queer’ follows the self-conscious and insecure Lee, who befriends and pursues a recently-discharged American Navy serviceman called Allerton.

The novel is a sequel to the author’s semi-autobiographical novel ‘Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict’ and the writer – who penned the book between 1951 and 1953, decades before it was published – previously explained it represented his life off heroin.

Steve Buscemi previously planned to direct a different adaptation of the book in 2011, which had Stanley Tucci, Ben Foster and John Ventimiglia in line to star.

Meanwhile, Daniel recently admitted he knew he wanted James Bond to die as soon as he saw the “enormity” of his first outing of the spy, ‘Casino Royale’ in 2006.

He said: “I was driving away from the Berlin premiere of ‘Casino Royale’ with Barbara Broccoli.

“I had genuinely thought I would do one Bond movie, then it would be over. But by then we knew we had a hit on our hands. I realised the enormity of it, so I said to Barbara, ‘How many more? Three? Four?’ She said, ‘Four!’ I said, ‘OK. Then can I kill him off?’ She said, ‘Yes.’ “

Despite the agreement, Daniel returned for a fifth movie, 2021’s ‘No Time To Die’, but he admitted planning for Bond’s death had to be kept secret because studio bosses weren’t thrilled at the idea of killing off the iconic character.

He recalled: “I said, ‘This is it. I don’t want to do any more.’

“If we kill Bond, we can begin again. I think Barbara thought that too. But, bless them, the studio, MGM, were, like, ‘What are you talking about? Are you out of your minds?’ There was reluctance. So we had to do it in secret, really.”

Luke Evans was “terrified” of coming out to his parents.

The 43-year-old actor was worried telling his mum and dad he was gay would “damage [the] connection” he had with them, but though it was a “difficult” time, he was relieved at how accepting his family were.

He admitted: “Coming out is a scary thing. I didn’t know one gay person when I was growing up. At 16, 17, the thought of telling the two people you love something that could damage your connection with them is terrifying.

“But my parents were able to understand that this was who I was; I couldn’t really change who I was and they accepted that. It was very difficult, but we got through it.”

The ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ actor has found seeing a therapist over the last decade very beneficial because he was too busy to process everything that was going on in his life.

He told The Times magazine: “Therapy got me to process an awful lot of things. It took me a while to go but it’s something that I have benefited from over the past ten years. My workload is very large and I travel a lot.

“I wasn’t processing because I was so busy. I detach from my real life very often. It took me a moment to breathe and to speak to somebody I can open up to.”

And Luke also uses meditation to release his anxiety and stresses.

He explained: “Meditation has really helped me. Not in a deep, ‘living on a mountain with wind chimes’ kind of way.

“I use the apps and just do it in my bedroom, on my sofa, in a dressing room, for half an hour. Breathing is an incredible way of staying calm and releasing anxiety. I don’t panic about next week, next month. I deal with today.”

The Prince of Wales will reportedly be “furious” footage from Princess Diana’s infamous ‘Panorama’ interview has been included in his brother’s new Netflix series.

He previously branded the sit-down “deceitful” and said it should never again shown due to the underhand tactics used by shamed BBC journalist Martin Bashir to land the exclusive chat in 1995.

Sources told the Daily Mirror on Thursday (08.12.22) William and his father King Charles will be “dismayed” the Duke of Sussex has “blatantly” ignored their wishes.

They added “it shows just how little regard there is from the Sussex camp”.

One insider told the publication on Thursday: “He (William) will be rightly furious about it.

“He couldn’t have been clearer in the past and this is one thing he would have thought he and Harry were aligned on.

“Sadly once more it shows the gulf between the two brothers couldn’t be wider.”

During the first episode of ‘Harry and Meghan’, released on Thursday alone with two other instalments, clips are seen of Diana speaking in her interview with Bashir, saying she hated being the “centre of attention”.

Bashir has been shamed for faking bank statements and showing them to Diana’s brother Earl Spencer to help get the interview.

He fraudulently claimed the documents showed senior royal courtiers were being paid for information on his sister.

The false papers also gave the impression royal family associates were selling stories on Diana to the press.

In September the BBC’s director-general Tim Davie promised the corporation would never show the programme or license it to other broadcasters.

William said in a damning statement after the publication of a report into the scandal: “It is my firm view that this Panorama programme holds no legitimacy and should never be aired again.

“It effectively established a false narrative which, for over a quarter of a century, has been commercialised by the BBC and others.

“It is my view that the deceitful way the interview was obtained substantially influenced what my mother said.

“The interview was a major contribution to making my parents’ relationship worse and has since hurt countless others.

“It brings indescribable sadness to know that the BBC’s failures contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation that I remember from those final years with her.”

Prince Harry said in response to the report he was worried Bashir’s underhand practices were now “widespread” and “bigger than one outlet, one network, or one publication”.

He added: “The ripple effect of a culture of exploitation and unethical practices ultimately took her (Diana’s) life.”

Royal expert Dickie Arbiter was among those who slammed Netflix for including footage from the Diana interview in ‘Harry and Meghan’, tweeting: “How come @netflix were allowed to use footage from #Diana #Panorama interview in documentary?

“20 minutes into the first episode #Harry talks about mother and compares #Meghan to his mum saying she has the same confidence, passion and warmth.”

The Sussexes’ Netflix show has made a number of claims about the royals, including that they had no protection from the Palace and accused aides of “planting” stories about them as part of a smear campaign.

Sources have said King Charles and William are poised to respond to the show, but are unlikely to until the full series has been released, with another three episodes due on Netflix on December 15.

Computers can detect cancer by listening to farts.

An artificial intelligence prototype is able to recognise subtle changes after hearing trumps from healthy and unhealthy people.

The developers believe that their system, Synthetic Human Acoustic Reproduction Testing (SHART), will one day be able to pick up signs of cancer.

The technology can be used to detect tell-tale differences in the sound of both pooping and urinating.

David Ancalle, a student at Georgia Tech University in the US, said: “We’re trying to find a non-invasive way where people can get a notification on whether or not they should go get checked out.

“Like, ‘Hey, your urine is not flowing at the rate it should’ or ‘Your farts are not sounding the way they should.'”

The AI prototype is yet to be tested on humans but Ancalle claims that it could identify which bodily function a sound was coming from 98 per cent of the time.

The researchers hope that it will soon be accurate enough to pick up slight changes that occur when a disease is developing.

Cardi B says she’s had “95 per cent” of her bum fillers removed.

The rapper has revealed she had a series of injections to boost her behind but she had most of it dissolved back in August and she has now warned young fans about the dangers of cosmetic treatments including Brazilian bum lifts – insisting anyone considering the procedure must consult a doctor first.

In a video posted on Instagram, Cardi explained: “In August I got surgery and I removed 95 per cent of my biopolymers … if you don’t know what it is, it’s ass shots. It was a really crazy process.

“All I’m going to say is that if you’re young, if you’re 19, 20, 21, and sometimes you’re too skinny, and you be like ‘OMG I don’t have enough fat to put in my ass,’ so you result to ass shots, DON’T!”

She added of Brazilian bum lifts: “When it comes to BBLs, if y’all want advice from me, before you get your BBL done you have to make sure your blood levels are all right. If a doctor says your blood levels are too low or you have diabetes or whatever, don’t do it.”

Cardi has previously been open about her body insecurities, revealing she got her first boob job when she was 18 and had the first work done on her bum two years later.

In a chat with singer Mariah Carey for Interview magazine, Cardi explained: “Well, I’m from New York, right? And New York is a melting pot, especially where I grew up in the Bronx. I was really skinny when I was younger, and in the Bronx, it’s about being thick and having an ass so young boys would be like, ‘Look at your flat ass. You ain’t got no t******.’ And it would make me feel so ugly and undeveloped.”

She went on to add of her first surgeries: “When I was 18 and became a dancer, I had enough money to afford to buy boobs, so every insecurity that I felt about my breasts was gone.

“When I was 20, I went to the urban strip club, and in the urban strip clubs, you had to have a big butt. So I felt insecure about that. It took me back to high school. So I got my ass done.”