AMR poses a major threat to human health around the world
AMR occurs when microorganisms, such as bacteria, adapt in ways that make currently available treatments for infections less effective. Action is needed to reduce the impact of AMR worldwide.
Key findings from IHME
Based on estimates for 204 countries and territories, IHME’s paper, “Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in 2019: a systematic analysis”, reveals that AMR has become a leading cause of death globally.
At least 1.27 million deaths were linked to AMR in 2019.
An estimated 4.95 million people who died in 2019 suffered from drug-resistant bacterial infections. The largest burden occurred in the sub-Saharan Africa region.
1 in 5 people who died was a child under 5 years old.
Many of these deadly infections in children would have been treatable with current medicines if the bacteria had not become resistant.
Only 7 pathogens caused more than 80,000 deaths each in 2019.
These were S. aureus, E. coli, K. pneumoniae, S. pneumoniae, A. baumannii, M. tuberculosis, and P. aeruginosa.
Explore the data
Use the MICROBE (Measuring Infectious Causes and Resistance Outcomes for Burden Estimation) tool to visualize the health outcomes of infections, pathogens, and antimicrobial resistance across different countries and regions.
Interact with the data visual
How do we combat AMR?
Bacteria are gaining resistance faster than new antibiotics can be developed, but decision-makers can use this information about AMR to inform development of new drugs or vaccines. Effective vaccines are particularly important since they would reduce the need for antibiotic use.
In the meantime, essential medicines need to be made accessible. In addition, more data is needed, particularly from lower-income countries; increasing high-quality tracking of AMR would bring greater clarity to this issue.
There are more immediate actions that can help countries around the world protect their health systems against the threat of AMR:
- Take greater action to monitor and control infections, globally, nationally and within individual hospitals.
- Accelerate our support for infection prevention and control, as well as expand access to vaccines and clean water and sanitation.
- Optimize our use of antibiotics unrelated to treating human disease, such as in food and animal production – taking a One Health approach and recognizing the interconnection between human and animal health.
- Be thoughtful about our use of antimicrobial treatments – expanding access to lifesaving antibiotics where needed, minimizing use where it is not necessary to improve human health, and acting according to the World Health Organization Global Action Plan and AWaRE guidelines.
- Increase funding at every stage of the development pipeline for new antimicrobials targeting priority pathogens – from research for high priority bacteria, such as K. pneumoniae and E. coli, to securing access through innovative market solutions.
IHME Director, Dr. Christopher Murray, reviews key findings from our AMR research and what these findings mean for health policy decision-makers.
Common questions about AMR