Trend Antimicrobial resistance eroding antibiotic effectiveness

Summary

The report sees bacterial resistance to antibiotics as a phenomenon that began decades ago and already has a considerable impact. In 2023, it was linked to 24,000 deaths in Spain and more than 4.5 million worldwide. Recent international and national projections suggest that on current trends around 45,000 people a year could die in Spain by 2050, close to 10 percent of all deaths and about a third of those caused by cancer. As antibiotics lose effectiveness, infections once easily treated can become serious and hard-to-control health problems. Spain is one of Europe's largest antibiotic consumers, driven by self-medication, unnecessary prescriptions, stopping treatment early and heavy use in livestock. The report believes there is still time to halt the trend and points to the national plan against antibiotic resistance and AI-assisted research on diagnostics and new drugs as responses.