The abuse of antibiotics, such as in raising animals for human consumption or taking them incorrectly to treat diseases such as the flu, has caused many bacteria to alter their genetic material to be able to tolerate the effect of these drugs, generating a resistance, is what is known as superbugs. Now a study has found that the annual deaths associated with these infections are more numerous than those due to malaria or AIDS.
Specifically, the research, published in the journal The Lancet, has indicated that nearly 1.27 million people died in 2019 worldwide as a result of superbugs, and the Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) estimates that another 4 .95 million deaths in that year could be associated with these infections with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, even if they were not the direct cause.
The authors have warned that the resistance to antibiotics of bacteria that cause infections such as pneumonia or other blood-related or intra-abdominal infections – usually caused by appendicitis – exceed annual deaths from malaria or AIDS, 640,000 and 860,000 respectively. based on 2019 data.
These data have been obtained thanks to the analysis with a statistical model of the deaths linked to 23 pathogens and 88 combinations of drugs to combat them, which took place in 204 countries around the world, which has been 471 million individual records. To date it is the largest investigation on the subject that has been carried out, and has been carried out by researchers from the University of Washington (USA) and the University of Oxford (England).
One in five deaths is in children under five.
Of the 23 pathogens that were studied, the resistance of only six of them –E. coli, S. aureus, K. pneumoniae, S. pneumoniae, A. baumannii, and P. aeruginosa – caused 929,000 deaths and was linked to another 3.57 million. One of the pathogen-drug combinations, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, caused 100,000 deaths in 2019.
Antimicrobial resistance alone in lower respiratory tract infections, such as pneumonia, caused more than 400,000 direct deaths in 2019
The results also indicated that resistance to two classes of antibiotics commonly used against serious infections – fluoroquinolones and beta-lactams – accounted for 70% of AMR deaths. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in infections of the lower respiratory system, for example pneumonia, caused more than 400,000 direct deaths and 1.5 million indirectly. In the case of blood infections – which can cause sepsis – some 370,000 deaths were found and it was linked to another 1.5 million.
Finally, intra-abdominal infections were the cause of 210,000 deaths in 2019 and were involved in another 800,000. The researchers have explained that although AMR can affect any age, the group most susceptible to it is children, since no less than one in five deaths from these infections occurred in children under five years of age.
As for the geographical area with the most cases of deaths from superbugs, the areas with the most deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, with data of 24 and 22 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, figures that rose to 99 and 77 per per 100,000 for deaths indirectly associated with AMR.
“The world today is much closer to reaching the number of deaths projected for 30 years from now than previously thought. We need to act now against this huge threat,” said Chris Murray, co-author of the report. In addition, the authors advise governments to optimize the use of existing antibiotics and to highly value their use before prescription.
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