Currently, bacterial infections resistant to antibiotic treatment kill around 700,000 people worldwide each year. By 2050, that number could rise to 10 million, and bacterial infections would be more deadly than cancer, if left unchecked.
This is the sad observation made by economist Jim O ‘Neill, who was commissioned by the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, to write a report on microbial resistance by July 2016.
In an interview granted to BBC, the economist explains that the reduction in population and the impact on health problems would then reduce global economic production by 2% to 3.5%.
A forecast of 390,000 deaths in Europe per year
According to this analysis, it is the drug-resistant E. coli bacteria, malaria and tuberculosis that have the greatest consequences on mortality. Asia is said to be the most affected continent with the deaths of 4.7 million people each year. Then would come Africa with 4.1 million people. “In Nigeria, by 2050, more than one in four deaths could be attributed to drug-resistant infections, while India would see two million more lives lost each year,” says Jim O’Neill. But the United States and Europe would not be outdone with respectively 317,000 and 390,000 deaths each year.
Riskier surgical operations
“We don’t realize yet, but without effective antibiotics, many surgical procedures will become riskier: cesarean sections, implantation of prostheses, grafts for example “.
To respond to this disaster scenario, the team of the British economist will study what measures can be taken to avoid this “imminent health crisis”. This includes international regulation on the use of drugs in animals, the development of promising new molecules and above all the reduction in the consumption of antibiotics to limit resistance.
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