A new series in The Lancet estimates that basic hygiene and infection control measures could dramatically save lives in low and middle income countries
Being attentive towards basic hygiene and public health measures can save 750,000 lives that are lost to anti microbial resistance every year in low and middle income countries (LMICs) estimates a new modelling analysis as part of a new four paper Series published in The Lancet.
Among the measures discussed in the series are improving infection prevention and control in healthcare facilities including better hand hygiene and more regular cleaning and sterilisation of equipment, universal access to safe drinking water and effective sanitation and universal rollout of paediatric vaccines.
Each year, an estimated 7.7 million deaths globally are caused by bacterial infections – 1 in 8 of all global deaths, making bacterial infections the second largest cause of death globally. Out of these bacterial infection deaths, almost 5 million are associated with bacteria which have developed resistance to antibiotics. Authors of the new Lancet Series on antimicrobial resistance call for support for sustainable access to antibiotics to be central to ambitious and actionable targets on tackling AMR introduced at the High-Level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2024.
Series co-author, Professor Iruka Okeke of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, says, “Access to effective antibiotics is essential to patients worldwide. A failure to provide these antibiotics puts us at risk for not meeting the UN sustainable development goals on child survival and health aging. Effective antibiotics prolong lives, reduce disabilities, limit healthcare costs and enable other life-saving medical actions such as surgery. However, antimicrobial resistance is on the rise – accelerated by inappropriate use of antibiotics during the COVID-19 pandemic – threatening the backbone of modern medicine and already leading to deaths and disease which would have once been prevented.”
The new Series highlights how babies, children, the elderly and people with chronic illness are most vulnerable to AMR as they have a higher risk of contracting bacterial infections in general.
AMR is a huge threat to newborn survival around the world. A third of deaths in newborn babies globally are caused by infections and half of those to sepsis (a potentially lethal system-wide response to infection). Increasingly, the bacteria or fungi which cause these infections are no longer responding to most readily available antibiotics, for example, in a study including 11 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America between 2018-2020, 18% of babies with sepsis did not survive despite being given antibiotics.
