Antibiotic resistance is responsible for 1 million deaths per year worldwide since 1990, bringing the total to 36 million.
By 2050, the death toll is expected to reach more than 39 million, or three people every minute.
This is according to a large-scale study led by the Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) project, a collaboration between the University of Oxford and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.
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After analyzing 520 million health records, researchers provided future predictions for 22 pathogens, 84 pathogen-drug combinations, and 11 infectious disease syndromes across 204 countries and regions, according to a GRAM press release.
Antibiotic resistance is responsible for 1 million deaths per year worldwide since 1990, bringing the total to 36 million. (iStock)
The findings were published Monday in the journal The Lancet.
What is antibiotic resistance?
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria and other types of pathogens become stronger than the drugs given to treat them, creating so-called “superbugs.”
This can make the infection difficult or impossible to treat, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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“Modern medicine has made it possible to successfully perform organ transplants, complex surgical procedures, and treat extremely premature infants through the use of antibiotics,” Jasmine Rivière-Marcellin, MD, a fellow at the Infectious Diseases Society of America and professor of infectious diseases at the University of Nebraska, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.
“These interventions were successful because antibiotics allowed us to prevent and treat infections in critically ill patients.”


Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria and other types of pathogens become more potent than the drugs given to treat them, creating so-called “superbugs.” (iStock)
She warned that antibiotic-resistant bacteria currently pose a “significant health risk” as they make it harder to treat and prevent infections.
“Not only does this put medical advances at risk, but it could take us back to the pre-antibiotic era, when simple skin and soft tissue infections caused high mortality rates,” Marcellin added.
“We may be going back to the pre-antibiotic era.”
Maureen Tierney, MD, associate dean for clinical research and public health at Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska, also was not involved in the study, but acknowledged that it is “the most comprehensive attempt to determine the burden of antimicrobial resistance in terms of disability and mortality.”
“This was a massive effort that used many different data sources from around the world to estimate the number of deaths caused by microbes that were resistant to several antibiotics,” she told Fox News Digital.
Key shift mark
Since 1990, the infection that has caused the largest increase has been MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), a type of staphylococcus that has become resistant to some antibiotics.
The number of annual MRSA-related deaths has increased from 57,200 in 1990 to 130,000 in 2021, according to the study.
Despite the overall increase in AMR-related deaths, mortality rates among children under 5 years of age halved between 1990 and 2021.


Since 1990, the infection that has caused the largest increase has been MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), a type of staphylococcus that has become resistant to some antibiotics. (iStock)
The researchers attribute this to childhood vaccination programmes and greater access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene practices.
The biggest surge was among adults aged 70 and over, where AMR deaths increased by more than 80%.
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“Researchers expect these trends to continue over the coming decades, with global AMR deaths in children under five years of age projected to halve by 2050, while deaths in people aged 70 years and older are projected to more than double,” the press release said.
Geographically, the largest increases in deaths were in western sub-Saharan Africa, tropical Latin America, high-income North America, Southeast Asia, and South Asia.
Combating antibiotic resistance
Next week, global health leaders will meet at the United Nations General Assembly in New York to discuss new strategies to tackle AMR.
Potential interventions include “infection prevention and control measures such as new vaccines and antimicrobials, improved access to water and sanitation, and further investments in diagnostics, training and new technologies across the health system,” the statement said.


“The most important way to reduce the occurrence of antibiotic resistance is vaccination against diseases like pneumonia, influenza, COVID-19 and measles,” the infectious disease expert told Fox News Digital. (Jeff Kowalski/AFP via Getty Images)
“The most important way to reduce the occurrence of antibiotic resistance is vaccination against diseases like pneumonia, influenza, COVID-19 and measles,” Creighton University’s Tierney told Fox News Digital.
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Tierney also called for “antimicrobial stewardship” (which he defines as “the judicious use of antibiotics in humans, animals and agriculture”), infection prevention measures, especially in health-care facilities, and the development of new antibiotics.
“Antibiotics are a shared natural resource that we all must protect.”
Developing new medicines is one way to combat AMR, but Marcelin warned that relying solely on drug discovery is “futile” given the long time it takes to develop, test and approve new drugs.
“The number of new or repurposed antibiotics in late-stage clinical development is very small, and not a single antibiotic candidate claims to be effective against bacteria resistant to all currently available drugs,” she told Fox News Digital.
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“If we can’t easily make new drugs, we can fight resistance by limiting the spread of resistant bacteria. This is the principle of infection control.”


To prevent resistance, experts say antibiotics should be prescribed and used “only when indicated, for optimal duration, at the right timing and with the right dosing regimen.” (iStock)
To prevent resistance, Marcelin agreed, antibiotics should be prescribed and used “only when necessary, for the optimal duration, at the right timing and with the right dosing regimen.”
She added: “Antibiotics are a shared natural resource that we all must protect so that we can continue to live in a world where medical advances are made and deaths from bacterial infections are reduced.”
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Fox News Digital has reached out to GRAM researchers for comment.