According to the UK’s National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies: “The numbers of infections complicated by AMR (antimicrobial resistance) are expected to increase markedly over the next 20 years.
“If a widespread outbreak were to occur, we could expect around 200,000 people to be affected by a bacterial blood infection that could not be treated effectively with existing drugs, and around 80,000 of these people might die.”
To put that in perspective, the report is saying that 40 percent of people infected with an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria could die from their infection.
The report also said that as antibiotics become less effective, routine surgeries could carry much higher risks for infection and death.
In a sort of return to the dark ages, the report predicted that “Much of modern medicine (for example, organ transplantation, bowel surgery and some cancer treatments) may become unsafe due to the risk of infection. In addition, influenza pandemics would become more serious without effective treatments.”
All might not be lost: international groups, including the UN and World Health Organization, are working together to develop strategies to create new antibiotic strains that common bacteria aren’t immune to.
“By the summer of 2016, the review will recommend a set of actions to be agreed on at an international level in order to deal with the challenge of AMR,” the report said.
From Discovery News
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