Experts describe findings as deeply concerning and predict 70% increase in related deaths by 2050
Hospitals across the world have recorded an alarming rise in common infections that are resistant to antibiotics, with doctors saying the number of deaths driven by drug resistance will increase sharply in the years ahead.
One in six laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections were resistant to antibiotic treatments in 2023, with more than 40% of antibiotics losing potency against common blood, gut, urinary tract and sexually-transmitted infections between 2018 and 2023, records show.
The problem was most severe, and worsening, in low and middle-income countries and those with weaker healthcare systems, according to the World Health Organization’s Global Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance report, which gathered data on more than 23m bacterial infections from 104 countries.
“These findings are deeply concerning,” said Dr Yvan Hutin, the director of the WHO’s department of antimicrobial resistance. “As antibiotic resistance continues to rise, we are running out of treatment options and we are putting lives at risk, especially in countries where infection prevention and control is weak and access to diagnostics and effective medicine is already limited.”
Estimates of resistance for some countries might be skewed by healthcare systems reporting data only from specialist hospitals that handle the most severe infections. But based on the records gathered, the WHO estimates one in three bacterial infections in south-east Asia and the eastern Mediterranean were resistant to antibiotics in 2023, and one in five in Africa.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) arises when pathogens evolve to withstand the drugs used to kill them. In 2021, 7.7 million people globally died from bacterial infections. Drug resistance contributed to 4.71 million of the deaths, with 1.14 million directly attributed.
By: The Guardian