According to new research, antibiotic-resistant germs caused more than 1.2 million deaths globally in one year. The research also suggests that these “superbugs” have joined the ranks of the world’s leading infectious diseases.
The fresh data has been published in the medical journal Lancet on Thursday. The estimate is not a complete tally of such deaths, but rather an attempt to fill in gaps from countries that report little or no data on the germs’ toll.
Though several years old global estimate has been cited by the World Health Organization, that suggested at least 700,000 people die each year due to antimicrobial-resistant germs. But it has been acknowledged by the health officials that there’s been a very little information from several countries.
Antimicrobial resistance happens when germs like bacteria and fungi gain the power to fight off the drugs that were designed to kill them. The problem is not new, but attention to it has increased amid the worries about a lack of new drugs to fight them.
In a statement, the WHO officials said that the new study “clearly demonstrates the existential threat” that drug-resistant germs pose. To find fundings and solutions the health officials have tried to step up their efforts in the last few decades, which includes trying to get a better handle on the toll
New evidence now shows that in 2019 an estimated 1.27 million deaths were directly attributable to #AntimicrobialResistance and 4.95 million deaths were associated with it: study from @IHME_UW https://t.co/n1OImahazA
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 20, 2022
In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control in 2019 estimated that more than 35,000 Americans die each year from antibiotic-resistant infections — or about 1% of the people who develop such infections.
In the new paper, the researchers found that deaths linked to 23 germs in 204 countries and territories in 2019. They used data from hospitals, surveillance systems, other studies and other sources to produces death tallies in all across the world. They concluded that more than 1.2 million people died in 2019 from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, which are a large subgroup of a resistance problem also seen in drugs that target fungi and viruses.
The estimate — which includes drug-resistant tuberculosis deaths — suggests the annual toll of such germs is higher than such global scourges as HIV and malaria.