Antimicrobial Resistance Caused Over Half Million Deaths in the Americas
Bacterial antimicrobial resistance falls into the WHO’s top 10 threats to humanity. A study reveals how much this deadly problem affects the Americas
This number has global health officials on edge, considering the growing problem is listed as one of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) top 10 public health threats facing humanity.
Deaths Associated With AMR
Analyses revealed bacterial AMR played a role in killing 569,000 people in 2019, representing 11.5 percent of all global AMR-associated deaths.
In other words, drug-resistant infections were partly responsible, but there may have been a separate, underlying main cause of death. An additional 141,000 deaths were directly caused by AMR.
This number makes up just over 11 percent of all global AMR deaths.
“Given the burden across different countries, infectious syndromes and pathogen–drug combinations, [bacterial] AMR represents a substantial health threat in the Americas,” the study authors wrote. “Evidence from this study can guide mitigation efforts that are tailored to the needs of each country in the region.”
Lower respiratory infections and thorax, bloodstream, and peritoneal/intra-abdominal infections made up the largest bacterial AMR-associated fatal burden in the region. Fatal burden is a term used to describe the burden of dying prematurely as measured by years of life lost.
Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii were the leading pathogens associated with AMR death.
Collectively, these pathogens were responsible for 452,000 of the 569,000 deaths associated with AMR.
Methicillin-resistant S. aureus topped the list in terms of pathogen–drug combination-associated deaths in 34 of 35 countries, and aminopenicillin-resistant E. coli led the combination in 15 of 35.
Regions and Age Groups Most at Risk
Haiti had the lowest proportion of infectious deaths associated with resistant pathogens, while Chile had the highest.
Five countries had incidence rates above 90 deaths per 100,000 person-years. The five ranked from highest to lowest were Haiti, Bolivia, Guatemala, Guyana, and Honduras.
Countries with the lowest AMR death rates, defined as fewer than 50 deaths per 100,000 person-years, ranked lowest to highest, were Canada, the United States, Colombia, Cuba, Panama, Costa Rica, Chile, Venezuela, Uruguay, and Jamaica.
What Are Antimicrobials and Why Do People Become Resistant to Them?
Antimicrobials are medications used to prevent and treat infections and include antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, and antiparasitics.
Microbes like bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites live on and inside creatures and the environment, from animals to people and from the soil to the air, spreading from creature to creature.
Some are harmless and even necessary, while others pose a threat because they continuously evolve due to genetic changes allowing them to replicate and adapt to new environments.
AMR occurs when these microbes no longer respond to modern-day medication, making it harder to treat infections. Existing drugs, like antibiotics, may then become ineffective, causing a global risk of disease spread, illness, and death.
- Misuse and overuse of antimicrobials.
- Limited access to clean water.
- Poor sanitation and hygiene management in both humans and animals.
- Substandard control of health care facilities and farms.
- Poor access to effective medications, vaccines, and diagnostic procedures.
- Lack of awareness, understanding, and knowledge.
“The WHO Region of the Americas has a long history of surveillance of AMR, but there are still challenges to translate this surveillance into public action,” the authors wrote. “One of these challenges relates to the differentiated nature of the problem for the countries in the region.”
The reasons for AMR-associated deaths and deaths attributable to AMR vary widely by country.
Some countries are challenged with access to antibiotics and basic health care services. Others face the largest age-standardized mortality rates linked to and caused by AMR in the region.
“For those, the most cost-effective solutions may lie in policies which prevent infections, especially among the age groups that are most affected by infectious diseases,” they wrote.
See more here theepochtimes
Header image: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock
Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Defend The Scientific Method
PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company 
incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX.Â
Trackback from your site.
Tom
| #
You have to wonder if these medical clowns, who continue to pump patients full of antibiotics, have a clue. Eventually, all drugs destroy the naturalness of your body. Take more drugs and hasten your early death…all in the name of some psychotic, arrogant doctor who believes in big pharma like a religion.
Reply
Wisenox
| #
The WHO pushes fake viruses, vaccines for profit and re-write definitions so their lies can be defined as a “pandemic”.
Their words are meaningless!
Reply
Saeed Qureshi
| #
Until the public (even physicians) realize that they are trained ONLY to practice/prescribe medicines, not the science of chemicals (aka medicines), the public will suffer from misdiagnosis (e.g., COVID-19) and the treatment (e.g., mRNA vaccine). Sad but true.
There is no illness (COVID-19), and there is no treatment (mRNA vaccine) needed.
Reply
JaKo
| #
Consider please the following article.
Not only (over-prescribed and misused) antibiotics, but whole plethora of other A-B-agents, even those sanitizers at the entrances to anywhere, are behind the accelerating spread of multi-resistant and deadly bacteria and, perhaps, other pathogens.
Who the hell came out with all those nonsense measures? Oh, well done! Oligarch of the world, unite! (We’re developing a high throughput guillotine…)
Cheers, JaKo
Reply
VOWG
| #
This from a group that wants to reduce the population.
Reply