The growing problem of antibiotic resistance | 7.30

It's a significant global public health threat putting modern medicine at risk.

Antimicrobial resistance is when the germs that cause infections no longer respond to the medicines used to treat them. Largely caused by the overuse and misuse of antibiotics and antivirals in humans and farming, antimicrobial resistance is responsible for millions of deaths.

A study published in the medical journal the Lancet this month found 1.06 million people died from drug-resistance infections in 1990, a figure that rose to 1.2 million in 2019 before dropping slightly to 1.14 million in 2021. The paper predicts antibiotic-resistant infections will kill more than 39 million people between 2025 and 2050. Ellen Coulter reports.

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