Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens millions of lives annually, with bacterial infections claiming one in every eight global deaths, said a study published in The Lancet, painting a grim picture of a world where 50 lakh lives are lost each year due to bacteria resistant to antibiotics.
It said up to 7.5 lakh AMR-related deaths annually in low middle income countries could be prevented by improving infection prevention measures, including hand hygiene, sanitation, and vaccination, said the authors and have called for support in providing sustainable access to antibiotics to be central to ambitious and actionable targets for tackling AMR.
“Access to effective antibiotics is essential to patients worldwide. A failure to provide these antibiotics puts us at risk for not meeting the UN sustainable development goals on child survival and health ageing,” said series co-author, Iruka Okeke of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Okeke said that effective antibiotics prolong lives, reduce disabilities, limit healthcare costs and enable other life-saving medical actions such as surgery.
“However, antimicrobial resistance is on the rise – accelerated by inappropriate use of antibiotics during the COVID-19 pandemic – threatening the backbone of modern medicine and already leading to deaths and disease which would have once been prevented,” said Okeke.
Existing infection prevention methods can prevent AMR-associated deaths, according to modelling analysis undertaken for putting together the series of papers.
Up to 3.37 lakh deaths a year could be saved by improving infection prevention and control in healthcare facilities while around 2.5 lakh deaths could be avoided yearly by providing universal access to safe drinking water and effective sanitation in community settings.
Further, 1.82 lakh deaths a year could be saved by expanding the rollout of some paediatric vaccines, such as pneumococcal vaccines which help protect against pneumonia and meningitis, along with introducing new ones, such as RSV vaccines for pregnant women, the researchers found.
“Our findings highlight how public health actions to prevent infections in the first place should be prioritised as a strategy to tackle AMR as these methods have the potential to drastically reduce the number of deaths from AMR-associated infections,” said co-author Yewande Alimi of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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