Antibiotics · Global Health · The Lancet

Antibiotic Resistance: The World's Third Leading Cause of Death

CEBM 2b ★★★★☆ 4 / 5 A huge sample and 204 countries, but this is a modeled estimate based on data of varying quality, not a direct count.

We are used to fearing cancer and heart attacks. Yet in 2019, bacterial resistance to antibiotics was linked to 4.95 million deaths, placing it among the three leading causes of death on the planet.

What was measured

Researchers pooled data from 471 million medical records and samples across 204 countries. They separated two figures: deaths associated with resistance (4.95 million) and deaths directly caused by it (1.27 million).

4.95 million

deaths a year are linked to antibiotic resistance. It directly causes 1.27 million, comparable to malaria and HIV combined.

Who is to blame

Six bacteria account for 73.4% of all deaths from resistance. Drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) alone claims more than 100,000 lives a year.

Why it matters

Every unnecessary course of antibiotics speeds up the selection of resistant strains. This is not an abstract threat looming in the future. It is already the third line in the world's mortality statistics today.

The bottom line

Antibiotics are a shared and finite resource. Prescribing them wisely today means lives literally saved tomorrow.

Source: The Lancet, 2022 (Global burden of bacterial AMR, 2019)

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