A recent study published in The Lancet has revealed a shocking prediction: superbugs, bacteria resistant to antibiotics, could kill over 40 million people between now and 2050. This research is the first to track the global impact of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) over time and highlights the critical threat to public health in the coming future.
Superbugs are strains of bacteria that have developed resistance to antibiotic treatments, making infections difficult to manage. The study indicates that from 1990 to 2021, over a million deaths each year were due to AMR. By 2025, researchers estimate that 1.91 million people could die directly from AMR, with an additional 8.22 million deaths associated with it.
Superbug-related deaths in children under five have dropped by more than 50% over the past three decades, but these infections in youngsters nowadays are considerably more difficult to cure.
The researchers behind the study used data from over 520 million individual records, analysing the impact of 22 pathogens, 84 pathogen-drug combinations and 11 different infections across 204 countries. Their findings reveal that deaths from AMR have surged for more than 80% of adults aged 70 and older.
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The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified AMR as one of the top global health concerns, relating its rise to the misuse and overuse of antimicrobial medications in humans, animals and agriculture.
Call for prevention and immediate measures
The researchers wrote in the study, “Given the high variability of AMR burden by location and age, it is important that interventions combine infection prevention, vaccination, minimisation of inappropriate antibiotic use in farming and humans, and research into new antibiotics to mitigate the number of AMR deaths that are forecasted for 2050."
Dr Chris Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and lead author of the study, stated, "We urgently need to focus on developing new antibiotics and promoting responsible antibiotic use to tackle this significant issue."
