According to a paper published in 2016 as part of the UK’s Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, if drug resistant infections are not tackled now, they could kill an extra 10 million people across the world each year by 2050.

Without effective antibiotics, medical procedures designed to help people and ease suffering could actually lead to many more deaths. Cancer chemotherapy, transplants and surgery all rely on the availability of effective antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance is not a distant threat, but one of the most dangerous patient safety and global crises facing the world today.

Every time a person takes antibiotics, sensitive bacteria (bacteria that antibiotics can still attack) are killed. Resistant bacteria that sometimes develop through natural mutation, develop, grow and multiply. Repeated use of antibiotics subsequently increases the number of drug-resistant bacteria in a patient.

A meta-analysis has highlighted that the risk of resistance persists for at least 12 months in individuals after each intake of an antibiotic (see Figure 1). Healthy people who have not had contact with healthcare can carry resistant bacteria, which can then spread from person to person in the community or from patient to patient in hospital.

In some cases, there can also be spread from humans to animals and vice versa. Minimising unnecessary and over-prescribing of antibiotics, practising good hygiene (especially hand washing) and use of infection control measures are important to reduce the risk of spreading resistant bacteria.

Figure 1: Increased risk of resistant organisms

UTI 5 studies: n= 14,348
Antibiotic in past 2 months: 2.5 times
Antibiotic in past 12 months: 1.33 times

RTI 7 studies: n = 2,605
Antibiotic in past 2 months: 2.4 times
Antibiotic in past 12 months: 2.4 times

Source: meta-analysis by Costello et al. 2013