Superbugs will destroy millions of people – TT

More than 39 million people will die from antimicrobial-resistant infections in the next 25 years. The Telegraph writes about this on Monday, September 16, citing a new study published in The Lancet and funded by the British government.

It is now estimated that antimicrobial resistance (antibiotic resistance – AMR) is responsible for 1.14 million deaths annually, which is more than the combined number of deaths from HIV/AIDS and malaria.

“Due in part to the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture, the exponential growth of ‘superbugs’ threatens modern medicine. In England alone, 58,224 people will have an antibiotic-resistant infection in 2022, a 4 % increase over last year.” , the publication wrote.

Thus, common infections become incurable, and simple operations and procedures such as caesarean section, hip replacement, organ transplant and chemotherapy become more dangerous.

The number of deaths from drug-resistant “superbugs,” including dangerous strains of pneumonia E.Coli and C.diff, has increased most in North America, western sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and South and Southeast Asia.

Experts note that although the number of deaths from antibiotic resistance is expected to almost double by 2050, this only applies to “direct” deaths, when a superbug kills a healthy person.

“The number of expected related deaths is much higher – at least 8.22 million deaths per year. The groups most at risk from such deaths are the elderly and others whose immune systems are weakened,” newspaper letter.

One of the main problems with antibiotics is the slow pace of discovery of new drugs. Pharmaceutical companies have no incentive to invest in their development because new antibiotics, by definition, will only be used as a last resort, severely limiting profits.

The good news is that deaths due to antibiotic resistance among children under five have fallen by 50% since 1990 and will continue to decline, according to the study.

The researchers attributed the decline to “significant improvements” in transmission and control measures, such as mass vaccination programs, among infants and children.

Researchers from the United States found that penicillin changes not only the microbiota in newborns, but also gene expression in key areas of the brain if used at a young age.