<
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jan/05/antibiotic-emergency-could-claim-40-million-lives-in-next-25-years>
"Dame Sally Davies has a straightforward message about the coming year. We face
a growing antibiotic emergency that could have devastating impacts on men,
women and children across the globe, she says.
Davies, a former chief medical officer for England, has become a leading
advocate for global action to fight the scourge of superbugs.
She told the
Observer that there is a real danger that routine procedures –
from surgery to childbirth – could carry widespread life-threatening risks
because of the spread of bacteria that possess antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
“About a million people die every year because of the spread of microbial
resistance, and that figure will rise over the next 25 years,” she said. “It is
really scary.”
Estimates suggest that by 2050, death rates from AMRs will have doubled, with
figures indicating almost 40 million people will lose their lives to superbugs
over the next 25 years, with elderly people especially at risk.
“Recent data shows AMR is going down in the under-fives, which is good news.
For the over-70s, mortality rates have gone up 80% since 1990; that is very
concerning.”
As the population ages, more people are living with chronic disease and that
makes them more vulnerable to AMR, researchers have argued.
In the face of these threats, doctors have tried to limit prescriptions of
antibiotics as much as possible while patients have been pressed to complete
courses of treatments. However, medical misuse of antibiotics is not the only
route by which resistance spreads. The landscape itself plays a critical role,
a problem that stems from the fact that about 70% of all antibiotics are given
to livestock, creating a pool of animals in which resistance can evolve.
“We’re essentially throwing antibiotics at cows and chickens and sheep as cheap
alternatives to giving them growth promoters or prophylactics to prevent the
spread of disease,” said Davies. Such actions help microbes to evolve, so they
develop the ability to ward off antibiotics, resistance that then spreads
across the globe.
“If you’ve got intensive farming where a lot of antibiotics are used or a busy
hospital that has a poor sewage system, resistant bacteria can get into
waterways,” added Davies. “Winds blow over these patches of contaminated land
or water and pick up bacteria and genes with resistance in them, then let them
rain down in other places. That is how pernicious this problem has become.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
