Key points from article :
Antibiotic resistance, a growing global health threat, is predicted to cause 39 million deaths by 2050, with the number of annual deaths rising from 1.27 million in 2019 to 1.91 million by mid-century. Antibiotic resistance occurs when microbes evolve to survive treatments that once killed them, largely due to overuse of antibiotics in healthcare and agriculture. While resistant bacteria are spreading worldwide, the full extent of the problem remains unclear.
A new study by Eve Wool and colleagues at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimates deaths from antibiotic resistance using data from over 500 million records. The research shows that although the overall death toll is rising, deaths among children under five have halved due to better healthcare and vaccinations. In contrast, deaths in adults over 70 have increased by 80% during the same period.
The study suggests that future deaths could reach 1.91 million annually by 2050, but with new antibiotics and improved healthcare access, millions of deaths could be averted. Although previous forecasts predicted 10 million deaths annually by 2050, the new study provides a more accurate estimate by focusing on bacterial resistance and excluding other drug-resistant diseases like HIV and malaria. However, experts caution that predicting antibiotic resistance trends remains challenging due to the unpredictable nature of resistant microbes and varying healthcare infrastructure globally.
