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<\/span>Infections, surgeries and ordinary medical practices have become life-or-death situations<\/a> for many people, just as they were before 1928, when penicillin was discovered and antibiotics were born. Antibiotics have saved the lives of millions of people, who \u2014 if not for treatment \u2014 would have died from simple bacterial pneumonia (in the 1930s it killed almost 40% of patients) or from the after-effects of a common infection.<\/p>\n But over the years, bacteria have learned to resist the effects of antibiotics. So much so that antibiotic resistance<\/a> is one of the top 10 threats to humanity, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). A projection published by The Lancet<\/i><\/a> on Tuesday estimates that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) could directly kill more than 39 million people and indirectly kill 169 million (due to problems associated with other pathologies) in 25 years \u2014 a total of 208 million people. According to the study \u2014 which analyzed 520 million individual records from 1990 to 2021 \u2014 AMR will hit the over-70 demographic particularly hard, with deaths rising by 72% in high-income countries and 234% in North Africa and the Middle East.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are reaching the post-antibiotic era, when we will no longer have resources that work,\u201d says Luis Ostrosky, head of infectious diseases and epidemiology at UTHealth Houston, who was not involved in the study. \u201cMedicine depends on the use of antibiotics for things as routine as surgeries, therapies or transplants, and we are in a very dangerous time in history because antimicrobial resistance is increasing. In daily medical practice, we are finding infections that are not treatable with the antibiotics that exist now, and that is very serious.\u201d<\/p>\n The deadly effects of the post-antibiotic era began to be recorded 30 years ago. Between then and 2020, more than one million people (between 1.06 and 1.14 million) have died annually due to antimicrobial resistance, with adults 70 years and older experiencing a more than 80% increase in AMR mortality, according to the new study by the Global Research Project on Antimicrobial Resistance <\/a>(GRAM).<\/p>\n If this trend continues, the study projects that the annual number of AMR deaths will rise to 1.91 million by 2050 \u2014 nearly double the current figure. If AMR-associated deaths are also included, the number of fatalities is projected to rise to between 4.71 million and 8.22 million per year \u2014 an increase of almost 75%.<\/p>\n \u201cThese findings highlight that AMR has been a significant global health threat for decades and that this threat is growing,\u201d said study author, Dr Mohsen Naghavi, from the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME) at the University of Washington. \u201cUnderstanding how trends in AMR deaths have changed over time, and how they are likely to shift in the future, is vital to make informed decisions to help save lives.\u201d<\/p>\n The study reflects a mixed trend: while it warns that the over-70 population is projected to see a rise in AMR deaths, children under five are expected to see a fall. According to the research, AMR deaths will drop from 488,000 to 193,000, while AMR-associated deaths will fall from 2.29 million to 840,000. This positive trend is due to improvements in infection prevention and control measures<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe decline in deaths from sepsis [an extreme immune system response to an infection that damages tissues and organs] and AMR among young children over the past three decades is an incredible achievement,\u201d said Kevin Ikuta, Ph.D., from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and co-author of the study. \u201cHowever, these findings show that while infections have become less common in young children, they have become harder to treat when they occur. Further, the threat to older people from AMR will only increase as populations age. Now is the time to act to protect people around the world from the threat posed by AMR.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTo prevent this from becoming a deadly reality, we urgently need new strategies to decrease the risk of severe infections through vaccines, new drugs, improved healthcare, better access to existing antibiotics, and guidance on how to use them most effectively,\u201d added study author Dr Stein Emil Vollset of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and affiliate professor at IHME.<\/p>\n According to the research, improving infection care and access to antibiotics could prevent 92 million deaths. The importance of preventive measures is supported by the fact that the sustained upward trend in AMR temporarily decreased in 2021 due to social distancing and other disease control measures implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n But the biggest game changer would be the discovery of new antibiotics as, \u201cantimicrobial medicines are one of the cornerstones of modern healthcare, and increasing resistance to them is a major cause for concern,\u201d said Naghavi.<\/p>\nOn the rise<\/h3>\n
New antibiotics<\/h3>\n