A study published today reports that in 2019, over 1.2 million people died globally from infections caused by bacteria resistant to antibiotics.
The study published in the Lancet presents the most comprehensive estimates of AMR burden to date as well as an evaluation of the availability of data. The report provides evidence to prove that AMR is a leading cause of death around the world, with the highest burdens in low-income areas.
Co-funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and the Department of Health and Social Care using UK aid funding managed by the Fleming Fund, the authors hope the report will contribute towards making informed and location-specific policy decisions, particularly about infection prevention and control programmes, access to essential antibiotics, and research and development of new vaccines and antibiotics.
Highlighting the serious data gaps in many low-income settings, the authors emphasise the need to expand microbiology laboratory capacity and data collection systems to improve understanding of this important human health threat.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a major threat to human health around the world. Previous publications have estimated the effect of AMR on incidence, deaths, hospital length of stay, and health-care costs for specific pathogen–drug combinations in select locations.
Speaking to the BBC, Professor Chris Murray, from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, said the new data revealed the true scale of antimicrobial resistance worldwide and was a clear signal immediate action was needed “if we want to stay ahead in the race against antimicrobial resistance.
Other experts say better tracking of resistance levels in different countries and regions is essential.
Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan, from the Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy, in Washington DC, said global spending on addressing AMR needed to rise to levels seen for other diseases.
“Spending needs to be directed to preventing infections in the first place, making sure existing antibiotics are used appropriately and judiciously, and to bringing new antibiotics to market,” he said.
