Worldwide, more than 1.2 million people died from antibiotic-resistant infections in 2019 alone, exceeding the annual deaths from malaria and AIDS, a study found.
According to the BBC and the Daily Guardian on the 20th local time, 140 multinational researchers led by the University of Washington published a paper on this topic the day before in the world-renowned medical journal The Lancet.
They analyzed the records of 471 million people in 204 countries and territories through the ‘2019 Global Disease, Injury, and Risk Factor Study’.
According to this, there were 1.27 million cases of direct cause of death due to antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection in 2019, and 4.95 million cases of death due to indirect health deterioration.
That number surpasses 860,000 deaths from AIDS and 640,000 deaths from malaria in the same year.
Most of these deaths were attributed to lower respiratory tract infections, such as pneumonia, or bloodstream infections that could aggravate sepsis.
Among them, Staphylococcus aureus, which is resistant to the antibiotic methicillin, was found to be particularly lethal.
Staphylococcus aureus is one of the ‘multidrug-resistant bacteria’, which are dangerous bacteria that do not show a therapeutic effect even when several types of antibiotics are administered at the same time, and is considered the main culprit of fatal hospital-acquired infections.
Additionally, a fifth of the deaths of children under the age of five that the researchers identified were related to antibiotic resistance, making children more vulnerable.
By region, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia had the highest number of deaths from antibiotic resistance, with 24 and 22 deaths per 100,000 people, respectively.
In high-income countries, the same causes 13 deaths per 100,000 people.
The Guardian explained that there had previously been studies that analyzed deaths from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections by collecting several countries, but never before collecting data from all over the world as extensively as this study.
“The new data reveal the real scale of the global antibiotic resistance response,” said Chris Murray, a professor of health metrics and assessments at the University of Washington School of Medicine, who conducted the study. “It’s a clear signal that we need to fight this threat.”
Even as the COVID-19 pandemic is sweeping the world, antibiotic resistance is an issue that the global health care community is keenly aware of.
YTN Jinho Kim (jhkim@ytn.co.kr)
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