According to the World Health Organization (WHO), infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria are one of the top ten threats to global public health. These bacteria, which do not respond to antibiotic treatment, were present in about 5 million deaths in 2019 and were the direct cause of 1.27 million deaths. It is estimated that by 2050, resistance to these microorganisms will become the leading cause of death globally, necessitating better preventive measures to limit antibiotic use to situations where it is necessary to reduce the emergence of new resistance. their veterinary uses and develop new compounds.
Measuring the scale of this problem is critical to controlling it and understanding how to solve it. This morning, at the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (SEIMC) meeting at the Official College of Physicians in Madrid, a study by 260 researchers from 130 hospitals was presented in an attempt to assess this issue. José Miguel Cisneros, coordinator of the report, stressed that according to estimates from this work, “23,303 people will die in Spain in 2023.” “This number is twenty times higher than the number of deaths from traffic accidents,” He gave an example. The data is similar to two previous studies conducted in 2018 and 2019.
In total, there are more than 150,000 antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. The most common infection was urinary tract infection, accounting for 42.7% of the total, followed by gastroenteritis, accounting for 15.6%. On average, such infections have a mortality rate of 15%, but the most deadly pneumonia and unexplained infections have a mortality rate of 31.3%, which are smaller but almost as deadly.
Although age is a risk factor, as with other illnesses, Cisneros emphasized that “this can happen to everyone.” He warned: “There are younger people who have not had any disease before and they may develop it.” “We are admitted to hospital due to trauma and can become infected and die, and in some cases the risk is similar to the pre-antibiotic period.”
Almost half of these multidrug-resistant infections were acquired from other causes during hospitalization. The average age of those infected was 70.8 years, and the study’s authors calculated that the bacteria represented 189,535 years of cumulative life lost, estimating the average life expectancy of those affected to be about 8 years per person who died.
To address drug resistance, SEIMC emphasizes the importance of Programs to Optimize Antibiotic Use (PROA). These programs work in hospitals and primary care settings to optimize antibiotic prescribing, improve outcomes for patients requiring antibiotics, minimize adverse effects and control the emergence of resistance. The goal is to reduce consumption by 27%.
In 2016, for the fourth time in its history, the United Nations General Assembly signed a declaration to coordinate member states’ response to health threats. United Nations countries have reached an agreement to combat antibiotic resistance, which it considers one of the biggest threats to modern medicine, following HIV/AIDS, Ebola and non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Until less than a century ago, simple infections with these microorganisms (now curable with just a week of antibiotics) could be life-threatening. The advent of these antibacterial drugs ended this possibility, but bacteria continue to evolve and adapt to resistance. The danger of drug-resistant bacteria is exacerbated by heavy use of antibiotics on farms, globalization and a lack of financial interest in developing new treatments.
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