“More than the annual deaths from malaria and AIDS”
Shigella bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. /Photo = U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[아시아경제 나예은 기자] A study result has shown that people infected with ‘antibiotic-resistant bacteria’, which are as serious as COVID-19 and do not even work with antibiotics, have already spread around the world.
According to the BBC Broadcasting and Daily Guardian on the 20th (local time), 140 multinational researchers led by the University of Washington published a thesis on this topic the day before in the world-renowned medical journal The Lancet.
They synthesized and analyzed the records of 471 million people in 204 countries and territories through the ‘Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2019’.
According to the report, 1.27 million cases of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection were the direct cause of death among deaths in 2019, and 4.95 million cases of death were indirectly due to deterioration of health. That number surpasses 860,000 deaths from AIDS and 640,000 deaths from malaria in the same year.
Deaths from antibiotic-resistant bacteria were found to be due to lower respiratory tract infections such as pneumonia or bloodstream infections that might aggravate sepsis.
Among them, Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which is resistant to the antibiotic methicillin, was found to be particularly fatal. MRSA is one of the ‘multidrug-resistant bacteria’, which are dangerous bacteria that do not show any therapeutic effect even if several types of antibiotics are administered at the same time, and is considered the main culprit of fatal hospital-acquired infections.
In addition, 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.
The damage caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria was concentrated in underdeveloped countries. Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest number of deaths from antibiotic resistance, with 24 deaths per 100,000 people and South Asia with 22 deaths per 100,000 people. In high-income countries, the death rate is 13 per 100,000 people.
“The new data reveal the true 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.”
Ramanan Laksminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Epidemiology and Economic Policy (CDDEP), a US research institute, said, “First, we need to invest money to prevent (antibiotic-resistant bacteria) infection so that currently distributed antibiotics are used appropriately, and we need to develop new antibiotics. You have to spend money on it,” he said.
Reporter Na Ye-eun nye8707@asiae.co.kr
