Xinhua News Agency, London, September 17 (Reporter Guo Shuang) An international research team recently published a paper in the British academic journal The Lancet, stating that more than 39 million people are expected to die from antibiotic resistance worldwide between 2025 and 2050. In an interview with Xinhua News Agency on the 17th, the researchers pointed out that antibiotic resistance has become a major challenge to global public health and decisive action must be taken to address this threat.

Antibiotic resistance occurs when disease-causing microorganisms change and become resistant to the antibiotics that kill them. In this latest study, researchers conducted a global survey of antibiotic resistance between 1990 and 2021, covering 520 million people in 204 countries and regions.

The results showed that in 2021, an estimated 1.14 million people died worldwide due to antibiotic resistance, and this figure is expected to reach 1.91 million by 2050. The forecast also shows that by 2050, the number of deaths caused by antibiotic resistance among people aged 70 and above will increase significantly, and the regions with the highest mortality rates due to antibiotic resistance will be South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Otia Gray, a researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden who participated in the study, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency on the 17th that the results showed that antibiotic resistance poses the greatest threat to the elderly. Given that the global population is rapidly aging, the mortality rate caused by antibiotic resistance is expected to continue to rise over time.

Several researchers have called for immediate and decisive action to address the threat of antibiotic resistance. Specific measures include improving access to drugs, controlling drug overuse, and strengthening infection prevention.

(Editors: Liu Yeting, Cui Yue)