News: Antimicrobial resistance deaths could surpass cancer deaths by 2050, according to the WHO

If current trends hold, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is predicted to surpass cancer deaths by 2025, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), Medscape reported.

As of now, AMR is responsible for the deaths of 1.27 million patients per year; however, as Marc Van Ranst, PhD, virologist at Rega Institute KU Leuven in Leuven, Belgium noted, "an increasing number of bacteria are becoming resistant to more antibiotics."

"While antibiotics were once miracle drugs,” he said, “they have now stopped—or almost stopped—working against certain bacteria. Although we are discovering more effective therapies, bacterial infections are increasingly likely to worsen due to AMR."

If current trends continue, Van Ranst continued, it is “entirely reasonable” to conjecture that in 25 years, “some antibiotics will become useless, certain bacterial infections will be much harder to treat, and deaths will outnumber those caused by cancer.”

As concerning as this prospect may be, Van Ranst and his colleague Arnaud Marchant, MD, PhD, director of the European Plotkin Institute for Vaccinology at Université libre de Bruxelles, argued that vaccination offered “part of the solution”: "Expanding vaccination coverage for recommended vaccines is crucial to effectively preventing the spread of resistant pathogens," said Marchant.

Editor’s note: To read the Medscape article, click here.