Antibiotic-resistant infections could kill nearly 40 million by 2050, study estimates
Antimicrobial resistance, which occurs when germs become resistant to drugs, is expected to worsen over the coming decades
Infections of drug-resistant superbugs are projected to kill nearly 40 million people over the next 25 years, a global analysis predicted, as the researchers called for action to avoid this grim scenario.
Superbugs – strains of bacteria or pathogens that have become resistant to antibiotics, making them much harder to treat – have been recognised as a rising threat to global health.
The analysis has been billed as the first research to track the global impact of superbugs over time, and estimate what could happen next.
More than a million people died from the superbugs – also called antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – a year across the world between 1990 and 2021, according to the study in The Lancet journal.
Deaths among children under five from superbugs actually fell by more than 50 per cent over the last three decades, the study said, due to improving measures to prevent and control infections for infants.