Some 1.2 million people died in 2019 from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, which represents more deaths than those due to AIDS or malaria, underlines a study published Friday in the journal The Lancet.
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This is the first comprehensive analysis of the global impact of antimicrobial resistance, covering 204 countries and territories. Its findings confirm that antibiotic resistance “is a global health threat,” especially in low- and middle-income countries, but wealthy countries are not spared either.
More than 1.2 million people – and potentially millions more – died in 2019 as a direct result of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, according to the study.
“We must act now to combat the threat,” said study co-author Professor Chris Murray, from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, US.
“Previous estimates predicted 10 million annual deaths from antimicrobial resistance by 2050, but we now know for sure that we are already much closer to that figure than we thought.”
Many hundreds of thousands of deaths now occur from common, previously treatable infections – such as lower respiratory tract and bloodstream infections – because the bacteria that cause them have become resistant to treatment.
The report highlights the urgent need to scale up action to combat antimicrobial resistance: optimize the use of existing antibiotics, better monitor and control infections, and provide more funding to develop new antibiotics and treatments.
The authors recognize certain limitations to their study, such as the availability of data for certain parts of the world or, in places, a poor classification of nosocomial infections.
One of the avenues currently being studied to fight once morest the growing resistance to antibiotics observed in the world is the development of phages. These are living organisms that kill specific bacteria and are found in the billions in nature without attacking humans.
A case study reported Tuesday in the journal Nature aptly describes how a bombing victim hospitalized in Belgium, who had suffered from an antibiotic-resistant leg infection for nearly two years, was cleared of the superbug through phage therapy.
