Antibiotic resistant superbugs kill as many people in Europe each year as flu, HIV and tuberculosis combined, health officials have warned, urging more action to combat the “silent pandemic”.
Between 2016 and 2020, some 800,000 drug resistant infections and 35,000 fatalities were recorded annually, according to a report from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
“This means every day nearly 100 people die,” said Andrea Ammon, director of the ECDC. “The burden of AMR [antimicrobial resistance] in the EU remains similar to the burden of influenza, tuberculosis and HIV/Aids combined.”
It is estimated that the three infectious diseases kill around 31,500 people a year on average across EU countries, with flu by far the most deadly. But Dr Ammon warned that the growing threat posed by antibiotic resistant superbugs is neglected in comparison.
“AMR is a silent and slow epidemic,” she told a press conference. “It doesn’t produce the waves and peaks that we have been seeing in the past years in the Covid pandemic… but it really is a serious threat.”
The ECDC’s latest report does not include the UK, but estimates suggest 12,000 people died in Britain from antibiotic resistant superbugs in 2019. The European study found that 70 per cent of drug-resistant infections are picked up in hospitals and health clinics. It also warned that the number of infections caused by some antibiotic-resistant pathogens has doubled since 2020 – with at least some of that increase linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last year, reported cases of the Acinetobacter bacteria group more than doubled compared with pre-pandemic annual numbers. Infections caused by another bacteria, Klebsiella pneumoniae, which is resistant to last-resort antibiotics, jumped by 31 per cent in 2020 and by 20 per cent in 2021.
Dr Dominique Monnet, head of Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infections, said it was a “plausible hypothesis” to suggest the rise in superbugs is linked to wider antibiotic prescriptions to treat the bacterial infections during long hospital stays of Covid-19 patients throughout the pandemic.
‘Extremely worrying’ surge
AMR develops partly through the misuse of antibiotics, and Dr Monnet said he welcomed results which suggest there has been a 23 per cent drop in total antimicrobial consumption in humans since 2012.
But he warned that “broad spectrum” drug use has jumped by 15 per cent over the same period, and the number of last resort antibiotics, which are reserved and used for the most drug-resistant infections, has doubled.
“We must not lower our guard,” Dr Monnet said. “AMR is not the next pandemic, it’s already here. It’s a slow and silent pandemic, and each year we’re seeing an increase in infections and lives lost.” He added that it is critical to identify outbreaks in hospitals rapidly and put infection prevention measures in place, to boost the use of genome sequencing to detect resistant infections and to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use. Prof Samuel Sheppard, a professor of Microbial Genomics and Evolution, at the University of Oxford, who was not involved in the ECDC study, added that the figures are a “stark warning”.
“Failing to heed this and react to the rise in AMR will have devastating consequences,” he told the Telegraph. “The rise in the use of broad-spectrum last line of defence antibiotics is extremely worrying as there will be nothing left when these are no longer effective. At this point you will have to rely on your own immune system and the surgeon’s knife.” Globally, landmark estimates published in the Lancet estimated that 1.27 million people died from superbugs in 2019 – with the highest burden in sub Saharan Africa and South Asia.
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