Scientists warn antibiotic resistance kills about 35,000 people a year in the EU
Antimicrobial resistance, the ability of bacteria to withstand antibiotics, causes around 35,000 deaths a year in the European Union. Researchers warn the situation could become catastrophic in the coming decades.
Scientists in Europe and elsewhere are calling for greater attention to antimicrobial resistance, which occurs when bacteria adapt and medicines such as antibiotics can no longer destroy them. In the European Union (EU), this problem, also called a "silent pandemic", claims about 35,000 lives every year. Researchers say the situation could become catastrophic within the next few decades.
Antibiotics once made it possible to treat infections that frequently ended in death, but growing bacterial resistance threatens that achievement. Professor Fiona Walsh of Maynooth University in Ireland told Euronews that resistance means microorganisms no longer respond to the drugs normally used to treat the infections they cause. When bacteria resist several types of antibiotics, the consequences can be especially severe and even fatal. Doctors often combine several antibiotics, but increasingly even this fails to produce the desired result, and some patients die.
Forecast to 2050
A study published in the medical journal The Lancet estimates that between 2025 and 2050, bacterial resistance could directly cause about 39 million deaths worldwide. The spread of the problem is driven by excessive and unjustified antibiotic use in both human treatment and livestock farming, as well as poor hygiene and environmental pollution. Researchers therefore recommend the "One Health" approach, based on the understanding that human, animal and environmental health are closely linked.
Reducing the risk
Walsh stresses that the situation is not hopeless. Vaccination is an important preventive measure. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that wider and better-targeted use of vaccines could cut global antibiotic consumption by 2.5 billion doses a year. General health matters too, especially for older people, for whom infections can have more serious consequences.
The professor also points to the role of the body's natural microflora: a healthy bacterial community helps defend against infection, while unnecessary use of antibiotics and disinfectants can damage it. Researchers believe developing new antibiotics alone will not be enough; equal attention should go to infection prevention, wastewater treatment, food safety and responsible antibiotic use.
