BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC –A new study by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warns that up to 10 million people could die annually by 2050 due to antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
In a report launched here on Tuesday, the study highlights the need to curtail pollution created by the pharmaceuticals, agricultural, and healthcare sectors. The study focuses on the environmental dimensions of AMR, which occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines.
It calls for strengthening action to reduce the emergence, transmission, and spread of “superbugs” – strains of bacteria that have become resistant to every known biotic – and other instance of AMR, which are already taking a severe toll on human, animal, and plant health.
“The environmental crisis of our time is also one of the human rights and geopolitics – the antimicrobial resistance report published by UNEP today is yet another example of inequity, in that the AMR crisis is disproportionately affecting countries in the Global South,” said host Prime Minister Mia Mottley who chairs an UN-backed initiative of world leaders and experts examining the issue.
The report was launched at the Sixth Meeting of the Global Leaders Group on AMR, chaired by Prime Minister Mottley. It contains measures to address the decline of the natural environment and the rise of AMR, focusing on addressing key pollution sources from poor sanitation, sewage, and community and municipal waste.
Recommendations include creating robust governance, planning, regulatory, and legal frameworks at the national level and increasing global efforts to improve integrated water management.
Other measures suggested are establishing international standards for what constitutes an excellent microbiological indicator of AMR from environmental samples and exploring options to redirect investments, including guaranteeing sustainable funding.
According to the World Health Organization, AMR is among the top 10 global threats to health. In 2019, an estimated 1.27 million deaths were directly attributed to drug-resistant infections. Overall, nearly five million deaths were associated with bacterial AM, and it is expected that an estimated 10 million additional direct deaths annually by 2050 will occur, which is equal to the number of deaths caused globally by cancer in 2020.
AMR also affects the economy and is expected to cause a drop in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of at least US$3.4 trillion annually by the end of the decade, pushing some 24 million people into extreme poverty.
The pharmaceutical, agricultural, and healthcare sectors are critical drivers of AMR development and spread in the environment, together with pollutants from poor sanitation, sewage, and municipal waste systems.
UNEP Executive Director, Inger Andersen, said the triple planetary crisis – climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss – has contributed to the existing situation.
“Pollution of air, soil, and waterways undermines the human right to a clean and healthy environment. The same drivers that cause environmental degradation are worsening the antimicrobial resistance problem. The impacts of antimicrobial resistance could destroy our health and food systems,” she warned.
Tackling AMR requires a multisectoral response that recognizes that the health of people, animals, plants, and the environment are closely linked and interdependent.
This aligns with the One Health framework developed by UNEP, WHO, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).
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