Superbugs to Kill Millions of People by 2050

Millions of people in Europe, North America and Australia will die because of superbug infection, if the said countries do not take up the issue seriously. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has warned of disastrous consequences for the public healthcare system. If the basic hospital hygiene is not boosted and other important measures are not taken beforehand. 

According to a new research, a drug-resistant bacterium has killed more than 33,000 people in Europe in 2015. On the other hand, a report by the OECD said that 2.4 million people could die from superbugs by 2050 and also said that the cost of treating such infections would be on an average $3.5 billion (three billion euros) a year for each country. 

According to Michele Cecchini, who is leading the public health section at the OECD said that countries were already spending an average of 10 percent of their healthcare budgets on treating antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bugs. He said, “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”.

As humans consume antibiotics through prescriptions or medicine or agriculture and livestock products, given medicines to avoid the infection and thus strains of bacteria are developing that will resist the effects of drugs designed to kill them.

While in low and middle-income countries, the resistance of bacteria is already high. In Russia, Indonesia, and Brazil, nearly 60 percent of bacterial infections are already resistant. But the growth of AMR infections is going to be between four and seven times faster by 2030 than the present rate. 

According to report, “Such high resistance rates in health care systems, which are already weakened by constrained budgets, will create the conditions for an enormous death toll that will be mainly borne by new-born, very young children and the elderly. Even small cuts in the kitchen, minor surgery or diseases like pneumonia could become life-threatening”.

Measures and steps to prevent the effect of the bug have already started as the group, which advises the World Health Organization on public health initiatives, said the only way to divert the disaster is to implement immediate changes in behaviour. 

The healthcare professionals must ensure better universal hygiene standards in hospitals and clinics by instructing staffs to wash their hands and confirm strict safety regimes. So there is still hope for a better world if the preventive measures are adopted and followed strictly.