More than 1.2 million people died globally in 2019 from infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, according to the largest study to date on the issue, quoted by the BBC.

The number is higher than the annual mortality from malaria or AIDS.

Poorer countries are most affected, but antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens everyone's health, the report said. Urgent investments in new drugs and the use of existing ones are wiser recommendations for protection against it.

Excessive use of antibiotics in recent years for trivial infections means that they are becoming less effective against serious diseases.

People die from common and previously treatable infections as the bacteria that cause them to become more resistant to treatment.

British health officials have recently warned that antimicrobial resistance is a “hidden pandemic” that could occur with Covid-19 if antibiotics are not prescribed more responsibly.

The assessment of global deaths due to AMR, published in the journal Lancet, is based on an analysis of 204 countries by a team of international researchers led by the University of Washington.

They estimate that up to 5 million people died in 2019 from diseases in which AMR played a role, in addition to those 1.2 million directly caused.

In the same year, AIDS is thought to have killed 860,000 people and malaria 640,000.

/BNR

Follow Novinite.com on Twitter and Facebook