By 2050, the WHO estimates that up to ten million people could die each year due to antibiotic resistance – which is roughly the same number as global deaths from cancer in 2020.
In a new report from the UN environmental program UNEP, it is stressed that the environmental perspective is an important piece of the puzzle to consider in the fight against resistance.
Environment a source
It is partly about limiting the spread of resistant bacteria via the environment, which, among other things, end up there because of bacteria from us humans. The report points out that a “global effort” is needed to improve failing water and sewage systems and thus reduce the spread of the bacteria that way.
Another important environmental aspect concerns how to counteract the emergence of new forms of resistance in disease-causing bacteria, says Joakim Larsson, director of the Center for Antibiotic Resistance Research at the University of Gothenburg.
The environment can be seen as a source of new resistance properties, he says.
Disease-causing bacteria become resistant above all by taking up DNA from other bacteria, often from bacteria found in the environment.
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