New York, Jan. 21 (BUS): Antibiotic-resistant germs have caused more than 1.2 million deaths globally in one year, according to new research suggesting that these “superbugs” have joined the ranks of the world’s largest infectious pathogens. The press reported (Associated Press).
The new estimate, published Thursday in the medical journal The Lancet, is not a complete enumeration of such deaths, but an attempt to fill in the gaps from countries that provide little or no data on their germ count.
The World Health Organization cites a global estimate – several years old – that says at least 700,000 people die each year from antimicrobial-resistant germs. But health officials have long acknowledged that very little information is available from many countries.
Antimicrobial resistance occurs when germs such as bacteria and fungi gain the ability to fight drugs designed to kill them. The problem is not newBut interest in it has grown amid fears of a shortage of new drugs to fight germs.
In a statement, WHO officials said the new study “clearly demonstrates the existential threat” posed by drug-resistant germs.
In the past few decades, health officials have tried to step up efforts to find funding and Solution. This includes trying to get a better handle on fees. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control in 2019 estimated That more than 35,000 Americans die each year from antibiotic-resistant infections — or about 1% of people who develop such infections.
In the new paper, the researchers estimated deaths associated with 23 germs in 204 countries and territories in 2019. They used data from hospitals, surveillance systems, other studies, and other sources to produce estimates of deaths worldwide.
They concluded that more than 1.2 million people died in 2019 from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, a large subset of a resistance problem that also appears in drugs that target fungi and viruses.
Estimates – which include drug-resistant tuberculosis deaths – suggest that annual losses of these germs are higher than global pests such as HIV and malaria.
“Previous estimates predicted 10 million deaths annually from antimicrobial resistance by 2050, but we now know for sure that we are already much closer to that number than we thought,” said study co-author Christopher Murray, of the University of Washington. a permit.
Kristen Petersen, an epidemiologist at the University of Iowa, described the new paper’s methodology as “state of the art.” But she noted that the authors nonetheless had to make big assumptions about what happens in places where data is scarce, such as sub-Saharan Africa.
“They really have no idea in these areas,” Petersen said.
AOQ