So-called superbugs – diseases that have evolved to be resistant to antibiotics – pose a grave risk to people across the world. This is the view of Dame Sally Davies, British public health expert and former chief medical officer for England.
In an interview with The Observer, she said that bacteria possessing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) was introducing risks into otherwise routine procedures, such as childbirth. Some one million people are estimated to die every year from AMR, and this was likely to increase over the coming decades. By 2050, such death rates would probably double, which would translate to around 40 million deaths by that time.
“It’s really scary,” she said.
Aging populations with higher chronic disease burdens were especially vulnerable.
“Recent data shows AMR is going down in the under-fives, which is good news,” she added, “For the over-70s, mortality rates have gone up 80% since 1990; that is very concerning.”
This threat is now recognised, and doctors generally try to avoid prescribing antibiotics where they are not necessary. Patients are also strongly encouraged to complete their treatments, rather than discontinuing use after symptoms disappear.
However, the food and water supply systems are also contributors. The use of antibiotics on livestock has encouraged AMRs, for example.
“If you’ve got intensive farming where a lot of antibiotics are used or a busy hospital that has a poor sewage system, resistant bacteria can get into waterways. Winds blow over these patches of contaminated land or water and pick up bacteria and genes with resistance in them, then let them rain down in other places. That is how pernicious this problem has become,” she commented.