Antibiotic-resistant infections are killing millions, scientists say

On Jan 20, 2022

MRSA bacteria

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Drug-resistant bacteria killed almost 1.3 million people in 2019, scientists have estimated — more than either HIV or malaria.

Researchers also estimated that antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections played some role in 4.95 million deaths in the same year.

The findings of the study — which was funded by the U.K. government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — were published in the peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet on Wednesday.

The World Health Organization has described antibiotic resistance as “one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today,” and said that although the phenomenon occurs naturally, misuse of antibiotics in humans and animals is accelerating the process.

Antibiotics are sometimes needed to treat or prevent bacterial infections. But the overuse and misuse of antibiotics — such as in the treatment of viral infections like colds, which they are not effective against— has helped some bacteria evolve to become resistant to them.

This resistance is threatening our ability to treat common illnesses, leading to higher medical costs, longer hospital stays and increased mortality. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the United States each year, with more than 35,000 people dying as a result.

A growing number of illnesses, including pneumonia, tuberculosis and gonorrhea, are becoming more difficult to treat as antibiotics are becoming a less effective tool against the bacteria that cause them.

‘Major global health threat’

Authors of the research paper describe bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as “one of the leading public health threats of the 21st century,” adding that their study presented the first global estimates of the burden it was adding to populations worldwide.

The study looked at 471 million individual records from 204 countries and territories, and analyzed data from existing studies, hospitals and other sources. Its estimates were based on the number of deaths arising from and associated with bacterial AMR for 23 pathogens (organisms that cause disease) and 88 pathogen-drug combinations.

Lower respiratory infections like pneumonia, which were responsible for 400,000 deaths, were the “most burdensome infectious syndrome” relating to bacterial AMR, researchers said. Bloodstream infections and intra-abdominal infections were the next most prevalent drug-resistant diseases that led to deaths in 2019. Combined, these three syndromes accounted for almost 80% of deaths attributable to AMR.

E.coli and MRSA

E. coli and MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) were among the drug resistant bacteria that led to the most deaths, the study found. So-called “superbug” MRSA directly accounted for more than 100,000 deaths during the analysis period, researchers found.

The six pathogens identified in the study as causing the most deaths from AMR…