Superbugs, bacteria that are resistant to most known drugs, which recent events have shown to be a real and growing threat, could kill millions by 2050 unless nations take action to prioritize efforts to combat the immunity, experts predicted in a new report released on Wednesday.
A new report issued by The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has sounded the warning that “disastrous consequences” for public healthcare are on the horizon, unless the administration of unnecessary antibiotics are curbed and hygiene in hospitals and medical facilities are increased.
The group said that three out of four deaths could be avoided with an investment of only $2 per person each year as part of a comprehensive package encompassing public health measures.
An outbreak just three years ago proved that the threat from drug-resistant bacteria is real. In 2015, more than 33,000 people in Europe died from such an event, a new report published separately this week revealed.
The OECD report stated that 2.4 million people could die as a result of superbugs by the year 2050.
By 2030, the report predicts, resistance to backup antibiotics by superbugs will be 70 percent higher than it was in 2005. During the same period, resistance to third-line treatments are expected to double.
The financial impact is also troubling. The cost of treating people with such infections will skyrocket to an average $3.5 billion per year between 2015 and 2050 in each country of the 33 countries the report identified as being threatened.
The financial expenditure is even worse for the United States, which could reach $65 billion by 2050, according to the report.
“AMR costs more than the flu, more than HIV, more than tuberculosis. And it will cost even more if countries don’t put into place actions to tackle this problem,” Michele Cecchini, lead on public health at the OECD, told AFP.
