11.12.2014

The damaging effects of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are already manifesting themselves across the world. Antimicrobial-resistant infections currently claim at least 50,000 lives each year across Europe and the US alone, with many hundreds of thousands more dying in other areas of the world. Global consumption of antibiotics in human medicine rose by nearly 40% between 2000 and 2010, but this figure masks patterns of declining usage in some countries and rapid growth in others. The BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) plus South Africa accounted for three quarters of this growth, while annual per-person consumption of antibiotics varies by more than a factor of 10 across all middle and high-income countries. Any use of antimicrobials, however appropriate and conservative, contributes to the development of resistance, but widespread unnecessary and excessive use makes it worse. No country can successfully tackle AMR by acting in isolation.
A continued rise in resistance by 2050 would lead to 10 million people dying every year and a reduction of 2% to 3.5% in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It would cost the world up to 100 trillion USD. Furthermore, 10 million more people would be expected to die every year than would be the case if resistance was kept to today’s level. The human impact of AMR is more than large enough on its own to justify a major intervention, to avert what threatens to be a devastating burden on the world’s healthcare systems.