According to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of antibacterial agents, including antibiotics, has increased from 80 in 2021 to 97 in 2023. However, the health agency says there is a “pressing need for new, innovative agents for serious infections and to replace those becoming ineffective due to widespread use”. The Conversation spoke to James P.
O'Gara, a professor of microbiology, about the problem of antimicrobial resistance, or AMR. Most cuts and scratches do not cause life-threatening infections. Many people with infections can recover on their own, although antibiotics can speed up this recovery .
But for some people, including people with weakened immune systems, infections can be more serious and antibiotic treatment is essential. Our grandparents and great-grandparents who had no access to antibiotics always worried about infections. The risk now is that, as bacteria become more and more resistant to antibiotics, these life-saving drugs will stop working.
A UK government study published in 2014 estimated that, globally, 700,000 people die every year from resistant infections, including malaria and HIV. A more recent study estimated the number of deaths from bacterial resistance alone, globally, to be 1.27 million in 2019 .
These estimates indicate that the problem of resistance is getting worse, which is in keeping with increased antibiotic use in humans between 2000 and 2018 More than half of all antibiotics are used administered .