When infectious diseases don’t have a cure, they can have a profound impact on the economy. Nothing highlighted this more clearly than Covid-19.
Fortunately, for the last 80 years, we have had a cure for bacterial infections in the form of antibiotics. But antimicrobial resistance (AMR) — where bacteria, fungi and viruses develop resistance to the drugs used to treat them — is rendering our arsenal of antibiotics ineffective.
In 2022, the first detailed analysis was published on the health burden of AMR. New follow up research from the University of Oxford and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimates that between now and 2050, almost 39mn people will die from drug resistance.