10 October 2024

For more than 80 years it has been understood that if we don’t use antibiotics more responsibly and don’t continue to develop effective new ones, drug-resistant infections will begin to get the better of us. Now, it appears that we have reached that tipping point.

According to a new study published in The Lancet, the number of people who die from drug-resistant infections, already in the millions but remaining relatively flat for more than three decades, is now expected to start rising steeply. By 2050, the death toll will have increased by 70% with the total number of deaths associated with drug resistance reaching a staggering 169 million.

Until now we have managed to keep drug resistance from escalating through the careful use of the antibiotics that we have and by preventing infections from occurring in the first place, including through measures like vaccination. But, as this study makes clear, we have already made the greatest gains. With the majority of people lacking access to effective antibiotics, the most difficult-to-treat infections are now outpacing antibiotic development.