7.7 million deaths in 2019
These measurements are made within the framework of the Global Burden of Disease. This vast research program, funded by the Bill Gates Foundation, is of an unparalleled scale, involving several thousand researchers in most countries of the world.
In the end, “deaths associated with these bacteria constitute the second leading cause of death worldwide” after coronary heart disease, which notably includes heart attacks, conclude the authors. With 7.7 million deaths linked to a bacterial infection, one in eight deaths can be attributed to them, even if these figures date back to 2019, before the Covid pandemic.
Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli…
Of the thirty or so bacteria selected, five alone account for more than half of the deaths: staphylococcus aureus, E. coli, pneumococcus, Klebsellia pneumoniae and bacillus pyocyanin. Staphylococcus aureus is “the leading bacterial cause of death in 135 countries,” the study said. In the youngest – under five years – however, it is pneumococcal infections that prove to be the most deadly.