Rising threat: Bacteria increasingly resist antibiotics

NEW YORK (HealthDay News)—Millions more people will die annually from antibiotic-resistant infections over the next 25 years unless steps are taken to counter this growing health threat, a new study warns.

The number of deaths related to antibiotic-resistant bacteria is projected to rise to 8.2 million per year by 2050, 75% more than current estimates of 4.7 million per year, researchers reported in a recent issue of The Lancet. ”.

“By 2050, resistant infections could be involved in about eight million deaths each year, either as a direct cause of death or as a contributing factor,” said researcher Stein Emil Vollset of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

“To prevent this from becoming a deadly reality, we urgently need new strategies to reduce the risk of serious infections through vaccines, new drugs, better health care, better access to existing antibiotics and guidance on how use them in the most effective way,” Vollset added in a magazine press release.

Superbacterias

Overall, more than 39 million people could die directly from antibiotic-resistant infections over the next 25 years, the researchers concluded. Another 169 million deaths would be associated with these superbugs.

“These findings highlight that antimicrobial resistance has been a significant threat to global health for decades, and that this threat is growing,” said Dr. Mohsen Naghavi, who leads the Institute’s antimicrobial resistance research team. of Health Metrics at the University of Washington.

“Understanding how trends in antimicrobial resistance deaths have changed over time, and how they are likely to change in the future, is vital to making informed decisions that help save lives,” Naghavi added.

In the study, researchers tracked deaths in 204 countries and territories related to 22 germs and 11 infectious syndromes such as meningitis, sepsis and other serious infections.

The team used computer models to calculate trends in deaths directly and indirectly related to antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

These resistant germs could play a direct role in 1.9 million deaths in 2050, an increase of almost 70% compared to 2022, the researchers said.

In retrospect, researchers estimated that deaths directly caused by these germs fell by more than 50% in children 5 years old and younger between 1990 and 2021.

At the same time, deaths among older people aged 70 and older increased by more than 80%, due to older people’s greater vulnerability to infection, the researchers noted.

Deaths among children are expected to continue to decline in the future, but deaths from infection among people aged 70 and over could increase by 146% by 2050, according to statistics.

“The threat of antimicrobial resistance to older people will only increase as the population ages. Now is the time to act to protect people around the world from the threat posed by AMR,” said researcher Dr. Kevin Ikuta, assistant clinical professor of medicine at UCLA.