Michael Le Page in New Scientist:
The number of global deaths directly attributable to antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections is forecast to rise from a record 1.27 million a year in 2019 to 1.91 million a year by 2050. In total, antibiotic resistance is expected to kill 39 million people between now and 2050 – but more than a third of that toll could be averted if we take action.
Resistance occurs when microbes evolve the ability to survive drugs that were deadly to them, meaning they no longer clear up infections. Because of the widespread use of antibiotics, in farming as well as healthcare, a growing number of microbes are becoming resistant and spreading globally, but the full scale of the problem is unclear.
To address this, Eve Wool at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in Seattle and her colleagues have tried to estimate the annual number of deaths due to antibiotic resistance from 1990 to 2021. “Our estimates are based on more than 500 million records,” says Wool. “We have a lot of coverage geographically and across time.”
More here.
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