Kinkini Gupta
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Written By: Kinkini Gupta | Updated : September 19, 2024 6:16 PM IST
Antibiotic Resistance May Be The Cause Of Over 39 Million Deaths Worldwide, Reports Lancet Study
Antibiotic resistance in human bodies has been a concern for some time but a recent revelation brought about by a study published in Lancet Journal definitely takes the win. The study says that more than 39 million people could die because of antibiotic-resistant infections in the next 25 years. Data from previous years suggest that between the years 1990 and 2021, over a million people have die every year from the exact same cause. But, the concern rises as the number of deaths may be exponentially high in the coming years. The Lancet Journal recently conducted a global analysis on this subject based on which the study findings have been published.
According to Lancet study, the probable deaths from antibiotic resistant are distributed across the globe and may differ depending on geographical locations. It is estimated but researchers that deaths may be the highest in the South Asian region constituting the countries, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. They forecast a total of 11.8 million deaths between 2025 and 2050, as per the Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) Project. Other parts of the world such as the Eastern Asian and Sub-Saharan Africa are also suspected of falling prey to deaths due to antibiotic resistance.
What is antibiotic resistance? Antibiotics are very specific medications that are prescribed by doctors for specific diseases. Patients are expected to take them in measured doses and quantities. These medicines are designed to kill infections like fungi and bacteria. However, sometimes, these drugs become ineffective due to the evolution and mutation of the bugs that are its prime target. These bugs also often evolve to be able to defeat the drug itself, therefore rendering the medicine useless.
This study is the first-ever global analysis of the evolution or trend of antimicrobial resistance. As per studies conducted previously on the subject of antimicrobial resistance, it had revealed that between 1990 and 2021, people of age 70 and above may experience a higher number of deaths by almost 80 per cent. This will however not change and continue to impact people in the same way in the future, said the study. Older people will be impacted slightly more as per experts. Over the same time period, death cases pertaining to children under the age of five may decrease by more than 50 per cent.
