Deaths From Drug-Resistant Infections Set to Spike by 2050, New Report Warns

Lack of prevention strategies and new drug development along with overuse of antibiotics are factors in the rise of antibiotic-resistant pathogens

Bottles of antibiotics line a shelf at a Publix Supermarket pharmacy in Miami on Aug. 7, 2007. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

In a forecast that threatens to unravel decades of medical progress, a new global study predicts that antibiotic-resistant infections could claim more than 39 million lives by 2050, potentially plunging the world into a post-antibiotic era.

The report, released by the Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) Project, paints a picture of a looming public health crisis in which once-treatable diseases may again become deadly.

A Growing Global Threat

The GRAM report, published in The Lancet and presented at a global health summit in Geneva, Switzerland, shows a trend: Deaths attributed to antibiotic-resistant infections are projected to increase to 1.91 million in 2050 from approximately 1.14 million in 2021. To “die as a direct result of” implies a clear causal link, indicating that the death occurred specifically because of the resistant bacteria, without any intervening factors involved.