More than 39 million people will die due to antimicrobial-resistant infections over the next 25 years, a major new study has predicted.
Known as the ‘silent pandemic’, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) happens when bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens evolve to evade the drugs used to treat them.
The new study, which was partly funded by the British government, found that AMR is now responsible for 1.14 million deaths every year – higher than the combined toll of HIV/Aids and malaria.
It predicts the number of annual deaths will almost double by 2050 to 1.91 million.
Driven in part by the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture, the exponential rise in ‘superbugs’ puts modern medicine at risk.
In England alone, 58,224 people had an antibiotic-resistant infection in 2022, up by 4 per cent from the previous year.
It means that common infections are becoming untreatable and routine surgeries and procedures - like caesarean sections, hip replacements, organ transplants, and chemotherapy - are becoming much riskier....
One of the major issues with AMR is the slow pace of discovery of new antibiotics. Drugs companies are not incentivised to invest as the new antibiotics would – by definition – only be used as a last resort, drastically limiting profits.
Currently, just 27 new antibiotics for the most threatening infections are in the final stage of development. This compares to more than 1,300 cancer drugs in clinical trials in 2020.
Without a robust pipeline of new antibiotics, there are dwindling treatment options in the face of rising drug-resistance.
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