It is one of the most serious diseases expected in the coming years. More than malaria or AIDS, antibiotic resistance kills 1 million people each year, estimates a large study published in the scientific journal The Lancet This Tuesday, the first in-depth analysis on the subject at the global level. Above all, the researchers of the project ” tea Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) » predict 39 million people killed due to antibiotic resistance by 2050, an increase of 70% compared to 2022 and 169 million indirect deaths.
” These are two possible developments and the death toll is probably somewhere in the middle. ” says Tomislav Mestrovic, one of the authors of the study.
Results much higher than the 10 million deaths announced by the WHO for the same period last November. As a reminder, antibiotic resistance is a phenomenon that consists of the resistance of bacteria to antibiotics. For example, the sTaphylococcus aureus is the bacteria that causes the most deaths due to its high resistance to methicillin.
As a result, 130,000 deaths worldwide in 2021 compared to 57,200 ten years earlier. The study focused on 22 pathogens, 84 pathogen-drug combinations and 11 infectious syndromes (including meningitis, bloodstream infections and other infections) in people of all ages in 204 countries and territories.
Antibiotic resistance: In the face of another looming pandemic, WHO urges the world to learn lessons from Covid
Speed up research
In order to reduce the number of deaths, the researchers of the study stress the importance of prevention, in particular vaccination, but also the implementation of safeguards in access to antibiotics, in order to avoid massive use without the indication of a health professional. Last November, the WHO noted that the reasons given to justify taking antibiotics are in 24% of cases the cold followed by flu symptoms (16%), sore throat (21%) and cough (18%). Symptoms often caused by viruses and against which antibiotics have no effectiveness.
Health: France puts 170 million euros on the table to accelerate prevention
Reducing the use of drugs for growth and weight gain in animals is also a possible lever, according to the researchers. According to the WHO, half of the antibiotics in the world are intended for animals and, in fact, end up in the human body after consumption.
Last solution: the acceleration of research into new antibiotics.
” Since the antibiotic market is much less profitable than that of long-term prescription drugs, such as antihypertensives, pharmaceutical companies have invested little in this research. “, notes Inserm in a report produced this summer.
In 2020, around twenty laboratories came together with the aim of bringing 2 to 4 new antibiotics to market by 2030. More generally, the study published in The Lancet reveals that improving overall infection management and access to antibiotics could prevent 92 million deaths between 2025 and 2050.
Strong inequalities between ages
The latter also highlights the various dynamics in terms of antibiotic resistance according to age groups. Thus, if deaths have increased by more than 80% among those over 70 years old between 1990 and 2021, They have decreased by 50% in children under five years old. This is thanks to more significant vaccination campaigns in recent years in this population category. This trend is expected to continue until 2050 with a halving of deaths linked to antibiotic resistance in children under five by 2050 while deaths in people over 70 years old are expected to more than double.
The other inequality concerns the difference between regions of the world according to their income. And for good reason, it is in South Asia, particularly in India and Pakistan, that the number of deaths linked to antibiotic resistance will be the highest with almost 11.8 million associated deaths by 2050. These inequalities could widen further, since the cost of antibiotic resistance is high. In total, antibiotic resistance could cost more than 100,000 billion dollars worldwide.
Related News :