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We invented medicines to kill bacteria; now, the bacteria are killing us.
Lucien Swetschinski, a researcher and co-author at IHME, told SciTechDaily that bacteria have become resistant to many medicines and are causing deaths at rates much higher than malaria or HIV/AIDS.
The urgent message is that new measures must be implemented now to control the ever-widening global health crisis.
About the Study
The comprehensive study revealed that in 2019, approximately 569,000 AMR-related deaths occurred in all 35 countries in the WHO Region of the Americas.
The study provides data for 35 countries, 88 combinations of pathogen drugs, and 23 bacterial pathogens.
A common thread showed that countries without a National Action Plan (NAP) designed for AMR had the highest mortality rates. NAPs suggest methods governments can use to achieve the five goals on antimicrobial resistance published by the WHO.
Researchers found that bloodstream and bacterial respiratory infections were the leading causes. More than 43% of reported deaths in these areas were linked to AMR. A new version of the study was recently published by The Lancet.
3000 documents published over a ten-year period were reviewed. Research topics were grouped into five themes: diagnosis, prevention, care and treatment, cross-cutting concepts, and drug-resistant TB.
The four infectious syndromes that were AMR-related and caused the highest number of fatalities were:
- Bacterial respiratory infections – 293,000 deaths
- Bloodstream infections – 266,000 deaths
- Intra-abdominal infections – 181,000 deaths
- Urinary tract infections – 80,000 deaths
AMR is associated with 89% of deaths from the aforementioned bacterial infections.
Mortality Rates by Age
Death rates for associated (not directly related) and attributable (the cause of death) were comparable across countries. Newborns had the highest rate of death, followed by almost zero rates until age five. There was a slow increase until age 65 and a dramatic increase thereafter.
In Summary
Some of the lowest AMR mortality rates were seen in four countries that had published their AMR NAP and provided financing in one or more years prior to 2018.
Nine countries that did not have NAPs were reported to have the highest AMR-associated mortality rates.
After the January 2022 publication, IHME launched a visualization tool in an effort to raise awareness about the growing health crisis followed by two additional peer-reviewed papers.
