This drug hazard will cause 39 million deaths, scientists estimate

Millions of people are at risk of dying from a rising drug-related phenomenon.

Taking medications should always be done with caution. In a recent study in the medical journalThe Lancet, scientists estimated that 39 million people could die by 2050 from a drug-related hazard. to medications and their increasingly recurrent use. A phenomenon that was known but whose consequences had never yet been estimated.

The researchers looked at 22 pathogens, 84 pathogen-treatment combinations, and 11 infectious syndromes in 520 million people of all ages in 204 countries and territories between 1990 and 2021. They assessed that this hazard had caused more than a million deaths during this period.

Older people were more affected. Prevention among children under five years of age has reduced the death rate by more than 50%, while the death rate among adults over 70 years of age has jumped by 80% due to the ageing of populations. The number of direct victims could reach, according to models, 1.91 million people per year worldwide by 2050, an increase of 67% compared to 2021. Today, in France, this represents 5,500 deaths per year.

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What scientists fear so much is called: antibiotic resistance. The increasingly massive consumption of medications allows bacteria to develop defense mechanisms against them. They therefore no longer react to the treatment. This resistance could prove fatal.

“Antibiotics no longer work reliably because of drug resistance. Twenty years ago, the chance of this happening was one in a hundred or less. Today, the chance is one in three, one in four,” said Ramanan Laxminarayan, head of the One Health Trust research institute, EuroNews. 

To mitigate this risk, it is necessary to avoid overconsumption of these drugs, France being the fourth largest consumer of antibiotics in Europe, preceded by Greece, Romania and Bulgaria. It is therefore necessary to avoid overusing self-medication and instead seek the advice of a doctor, who will adjust the doses, as well as define the duration of the treatment to be respected. An improvement in the treatment of infections could also help to move away from this terrible scenario.  "This is a very silent pandemic that continues to spread. “Our attention must be focused on this,” insisted Ahmed Ogwell, vice president of global health strategy at the United Nations Foundation, reports EuroNews.