“We estimate that between 2025 and 2050, 39.1 million deaths will be directly attributable to antimicrobial resistance, with the greatest burden falling in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia,” Daniel Araki, a researcher at the Institute for Health Metrics, told Newsweek and Review and one of the study’s co-authors.
“Estimates show that antibiotic resistance has continued to be a growing threat to global health since 1990,” Araki said.
In addition to direct deaths, the team estimated that antimicrobial resistance would contribute to 8.22 million deaths per year by 2050, up from 4.71 million in 2021.
“To our knowledge, this is currently the most comprehensive analysis of antimicrobial resistance trends, covering: 23 pathogens, 84 pathogen-drug combinations, 11 infectious syndromes, in 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2021,” said Araki. “This broad range of information has allowed us to assess changing trends in mortality due to antimicrobial resistance. The analysis allows us to better understand the widespread and growing threats to health.”
He continued: “The study also allows us to generate predictions to demonstrate the growing impact of antimicrobial resistance and show the huge impact that improving prevention, healthcare and access to new treatments can have.”
So what should be done to combat antibiotic resistance and save millions of lives? Araki made the following suggestions.
Firstly, according to the expert, it is necessary to improve prevention and control measures, including increasing funding and access to new vaccines, drinking water and sanitation.
Araki then says that special attention should be paid to improving the quality of health care in hospitals and health centers, increasing diagnostic capabilities, training health professionals, implementing infection prevention and control measures and making new intervention methods available for people with advanced diseases.
The third pillar, according to the expert, would be to increase the involvement of the government and the private sector to encourage the financing of new antibiotics and ensure that the medicines reach the populations that need them most.
Text published in the American magazine “Newsweek”. Title, lead and subtitles by the editors of “Newsweek Polska”
