India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh will be devastated in the next 25 years! Lakhs of deaths expected due to this one reason: Study

A study has revealed that between 1990 and 2021, more than one million people died every year worldwide due to antibiotic resistance. Not only this, it is also a threat in the future. According to the study, more than 3 crore 90 lakh people may die due to antibiotic resistance infection in the next 25 years.

Future deaths from antibiotic resistance are projected to be highest in South Asia, which includes India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

Between 2025 and 2050, a total of 11.8 million people are expected to die directly due to this in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. This has been said by the researcher of the Global Research Antimicrobial Resistance Project. Antibiotic, or antimicrobial resistance, occurs when medicines designed to kill infectious bacteria and fungi become ineffective.

The researchers said that most deaths due to antibiotic resistance will occur in parts of Southern and East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, data between 1990 and 2021 showed that deaths due to antibiotic resistance increased by more than 80 percent in people aged 70 years and above and it will affect older people the most in the coming years.

Meanwhile, deaths due to antibiotic resistance in children under the age of five have declined by more than 50 percent. The decline in deaths due to sepsis and antibiotic resistance in young children over the past three decades is an achievement. However, it also shows that infections in young children have become less common but difficult to treat.

Kevin Ikuta, a professor at the Washington University Institute of Health Metrics, US, and a researcher on the GRAM project, said that the threat from antimicrobial resistance to older people will increase as the population ages. Now is the time to take action to protect people around the world from the threat posed by antimicrobial resistance. He estimates that better access to healthcare and antibiotics could save a total of 9.2 million lives between 2025 and 2050. He said that this study is the first global analysis of antimicrobial resistance over time.

According to author Mohsin Naghavi of IHME, growing resistance to antibiotics, one of the cornerstones of modern health care, is a cause for concern, and the findings highlight the importance of the global health threat. "Understanding how trends in deaths from antimicrobial resistance have changed over time, and how they are likely to change in the future, is important to make decisions to help save lives," Naghavi said.

This analysis was done on about 52 crore people of all ages from 204 countries. After this, the study revealed that about 4 crore people are expected to die in the next 25 years. The authors said that according to the first study of the GRAM project published in 2022, in 2019, deaths due to antibiotic resistance were higher than deaths due to HIV/Aids or malaria, which directly caused 12 lakh deaths.