OOver the next 25 years, someone will die every three minutes from common, preventable, previously treatable health conditions, simply because the antibiotics we use to treat them are no longer effective. Unless, that is, the world takes action to respond to the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Antibiotics have been a cornerstone of modern medicine for decades, but today some of the life-saving drugs we depend on are under threat. This is because the bacteria that cause diseases like pneumonia and diarrhea are changing so that they no longer respond to these treatments. Routine procedures from surgery to childbirth are becoming riskier, increasing the risk of deadly complications and threatening our healthcare systems. No one is safe from the threat of AMR.
For the first time, we are now beginning to get a picture of how this resistance is affecting people’s care. The Lancet recently published new research from the Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (Gram) Project, which found that deaths directly attributable to bacterial AMR continue to rise. This may come as a surprise to some, as we would expect that the incredible progress we have made in reducing infections over the past few decades would limit the number of deaths from AMR. However, the new analysis, using data going back to 1990, found that more than a million lives are lost to AMR each year, adding up to more than 36 million – and rising.
Growing levels of resistance and a rapidly ageing global population highly vulnerable to infection will only accelerate this trend. The latest projections also suggest that the number of deaths worldwide due to AMR will increase by almost 70%, to 1.91 million deaths per year by 2050. These figures should serve as a warning to politicians around the world: without urgent action, another 39 million lives will be lost within a generation.
This important study confirms that the world is facing an antibiotic emergency, with devastating human costs for families and communities around the world. It underpins our calls for all sectors to take decisive action now to save lives and protect modern medicine for future generations, and to meet the needs of low- and middle-income countries that are experiencing the greatest tragedies from AMR. It is time to reverse the trend, before it is too late.
For years, we’ve been fighting AMR somewhat in the dark, but today we’re starting to see more data emerge that can help us understand the global picture, map out how to respond to the spread of AMR, and spark international action. Following the publication of Gram’s first paper in 2021, countries like the UK, Ghana, and Thailand have already used these data to inform policy and implement coordinated action plans, while the World Health Organization used the estimates to develop its 2024 list of priority bacterial pathogens. To move the needle on AMR, Gram’s latest findings and surveillance data must remain at the forefront of global decision-making and be used to develop effective, data-informed national action plans.
The picture may be bleak, but it is not without hope. Simply improving access to better health care for serious infections and ensuring adequate access to antibiotics could save 92 million lives between 2025 and 2050. Developing alternative medicines that are effective against the bacteria that have developed resistance could save another 11 million or so.
This week, world leaders gather at the UN high-level general meeting on AMR in New York. We will hear from experts from across the globe – from health researchers, financial professionals and national leaders to health service directors, disease specialists and the pharmaceutical industry – before making bold decisions on how the world will reverse this alarming trend. The latest evidence makes it clear that we need a commitment to put the most vulnerable first, scaling up funding and action to achieve equitable access to treatments, vaccines and diagnostics. Then we must all work together to turn the tide.
From cancer patients in the UK and elderly people in Japan to children in Niger, no one is exempt from the threat of AMR. This is a global crisis that demands global action. Now is the time to be bold and ambitious in our actions to ensure that current and future generations have effective and accessible antibiotics, because millions of lives are at stake.