A new four-part series in the Lancet details how so-called superbugs are impacting global health and how preventing bacterial infections in the first place could reduce drug resistance. Ramping up basic infection control measures could prevent 750,000 deaths linked to antibiotic resistance per year in developing countries, according to a new study. Antimicrobial resistance, when bacteria, viruses, or other microbes no longer respond to medicine, is a global public health threat, with researchers estimating that nearly 5 million deaths globally are associated with it.
It is mainly driven by the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in humans, animals, and plants, experts say. In a new four-part series published on Thursday in the Lancet, researchers recommend new global targets to tackle bacterial pathogens and their resistance to medicine. They also quantified how promoting vaccination, providing access to safe water, and preventing hospital infections could stop these bacterial diseases before drugs are needed.
“In many low and middle-income countries, there are perfectly treatable or preventable infections that are causing most of the deaths,” said Ramanan Laxminarayan, co-author of the study and president of the One Health Trust, a research organisation. Overall, an estimated 7.7 million deaths globally are caused by bacterial infections, according to a previous study, representing around one in eight deaths worldwide.
Preventing these infections in the first place could h.
