Superbugs strike again: 10 million expected to die annually by 2050

Drug resistant infections are expected to surpass cancer as the leading cause of death by 2050

Drug resistant infections currently cause 700,000 deaths worldwide each year. If something is not done to adamantly fight against antimicrobial resistance, a new study professes that number will grow.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Antimicrobial resistance will kill an extra 10 million people each year by 2050.

This frightening outcome would push antimicrobial resistance above cancer as the number one cause of deaths around the world.

Make medicine more accessible to those in need

E. coli, malaria and tuberculosis are the most prominent drug resistant bacterias and are expected to have the biggest impact on the world's population.

"Scientists seemed more certain that drug resistance would be a major problem in the short term, than they were over climate change," expressed Jim O'Neill, economist and head of the study, in a BBC News article.

The worlds most populous countries, India and China, will face over a million deaths a year by 2050.

One in four deaths in Nigeria will be attributable to antimicrobial resistance. "Africa as a continent will suffer greatly," states the report.

Reduction in population and the impact on ill-health would reduce world economic output by 2 to 3.5 percent, according to O'Neill. Costs that antimicrobial resistance will bear upon the world will surge to $100 trillion (tn).

If antibiotics no longer worked to conquer common infections, health care as we know it today would cease to exist. Joint replacements, Caesarean sections, chemotherapy and transplant surgery are just a few treatments that rely on antibiotics being available in preventing infections. Without effective antibiotics, these procedures will become much more perilous and in some cases inconceivable.

"By highlighting the vast financial and human costs that unchecked drug resistance will have, this important research underlines that this is not just a medical problem, but an economic and social one too," said Dr. Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust.

O'Neill and his team are now exploring what actions are needed in order to immediately get a grip on this frightening reality casting over the world.

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