Rise In Deaths From Drug-Resistant Infections In 2023 And Onwards

By Rahul Gotadki , 02 August, 2023

Deaths from drug-resistant infections are expected to rise by 2050, according to the United Nations (UN) report in 2023. Necessary Actions should be taken, or else it can lead to a shortfall of USD 3.4 trillion in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annually in the next decade from 2023 onwards and push 24 million more people into poverty.

Climate change and antimicrobial resistance are a great threat to global health, as per the new reports from the UN in 2023. According to recent estimations in 2019, 1.27 million deaths were attributed to drug-resistant infections globally, while 4.95 million deaths were linked to bacterial Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). It is above the death counts of major killers HIV/AIDS and malaria, that has claimed the lives of 860,000 and 640,000, respectively, in 2019. The reports also imply that antibiotic-resistant infections could kill as many as 10 million people in just 3 decades, on par with the 2020 death toll from cancer.

The risks of AMR will impact people worldwide; lower-middle-income and low-income countries are expected to see the highest number of death tolls. Asia is predicted to see the highest number of AMR-related deaths per 10,000 population in 2050 that is around 4,730,000, followed by Africa with 4,150,000 deaths; Latin America with 392,000; Europe with 390,000; North America with 317,000 and Oceania with 22,000. Also, the report by the UN added that groups of people vulnerable to AMR are women, migrants, children, people living in poverty, and those employed in the agriculture or healthcare sectors.