Super bacteria, there is alarm: they cause almost 5 million deaths a year, what are they

Every year, approximately 7.7 million deaths worldwide are caused by bacterial infections, 1 in 8 of all global deaths, making bacterial infections the second largest cause of death on the planet. Of these deaths due to bacterial infections, almost 5 million (4.95 million) are associated with ‘superbugs’, bacteria that have developed resistance to antibiotics. Improving and expanding existing methods to prevent infections, such as hand hygiene, regular cleaning and sterilization of equipment in health facilities, the availability of safe drinking water, effective sanitation and the use of pediatric vaccines, are interventions that could “prevent more than 750,000 deaths associated with antimicrobial resistance each year” in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The estimate is contained in a new analysis published as part of a series of articles on the topic published in the scientific journal ‘The Lancet’.

The authors warn: If the world does not prioritize action against antimicrobial resistance now, there will be “a steady increase in the global death toll, including newborns, the elderly, and people with chronic diseases or requiring multiple surgical procedures.” high risk”. What is also asked, the experts continue, is “that support for sustainable access to antibiotics be at the center of the ambitious and achievable objectives on the fight against antimicrobial resistance presented at the high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2024 “.

This call for urgent global action against superbugs was launched by the authors of the series speaking at the World Health Assembly. Among the actions indicated as priorities are the intensification of efforts to promote vaccination, the control of hospital infections and measures useful for reducing the need for the use of antibiotics, protecting their effectiveness. It also calls for: expanding access to existing and new antibiotics, which could save many lives lost to bacterial infections, increasing investment in new antibiotics, vaccines and diagnostic tools designed to be affordable and accessible globally. Antimicrobial resistance is on the rise – accelerated by the inappropriate use of antibiotics during the Covid pandemic – threatening the backbone of modern medicine and already leading to deaths and illnesses that would once have been prevented,” warns Iruka Okeke of the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, co-author of the series.

Another element highlighted by experts is that “antimicrobial resistance represents an enormous threat to the survival of newborns worldwide. One third of neonatal deaths globally are caused by infections and half of these by sepsis (potentially systemic response lethal to infections). Increasingly, the bacteria or fungi that cause these infections no longer respond to the most widely available antibiotics.” For example, they recall, “in a study involving 11 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America between 2018 and 2020, 18% of children suffering from sepsis did not survive despite being given antibiotics.”

“As a clinical pharmacist specializing in infectious diseases, I was already acutely aware of the enormous problem the world is facing with antimicrobial resistance. However – says Nour Shamas, member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Task Force dedicated to survivors of AMR (antimicrobial resistance) – it also suddenly became a personal problem when my mother developed a drug-resistant bacterium infection after an operation. In Lebanon, as in many countries, our healthcare system is unprepared to protect patients from antimicrobial resistance: there are gaps.”

But now it’s becoming a race against time. “The window of opportunity to ensure our ability to treat bacterial infections is narrowing – concludes co-author Ramanan Laxminarayan, president of ‘One Health Trust and Senior Research Scholar’ at Princeton University – For too long the problem of antimicrobial resistance has been deemed not urgent or too difficult to resolve. We need immediate action and the tools to do so are widely available. We hope that this September the UN high-level meeting will also ensure that there is global will Act”.