The use of antibiotics has risen by more than 21 percent since 2016, according to analysis of 67 countries, fueling fears about the threat of antibiotic resistance.
Antibiotic use is one of the main drivers of antibiotic or antimicrobial resistance, which is where infections do not respond to medicines, making them difficult to treat.
"This growing resistance, fueled by overuse and misuse of antibiotics, can lead to more severe infections, higher mortality rates and increased healthcare costs," lead author of the study Eili Klein, senior fellow at the One Health Trust (OHT) and associate professor at John Hopkins, told Newsweek.
Antimicrobial resistance is estimated to be associated with nearly five million deaths worldwide each year, according to a Lancet study.
"The threat of antibiotic resistance is very real and poses a significant global health challenge," said Klein.
"In the U.S. alone, an estimated 2.8 million people are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and 35,000 die as a result."
He explained that antibiotic resistance could make common infections more difficult to treat, and that urinary tract infections (UTIs), for example, were increasingly leading to hospitalizations.
Klein's team analyzed data on the sales of pharmaceutical drugs in 67 countries, from 2016 to 2023.
They found that antibiotic sales in those countries increased by 16.3 percent, from 29.5 billion daily doses in 2016 to 34.3 billion daily doses in 2023.
From those figures, they estimated that global antibiotic use increased by 20.9 percent overall, to 49.3 billion daily doses.
Much of this uptick was due to middle-income countries, with pre-pandemic antibiotic rates rising by 9.8 percent—from 2016 to 2019—in middle-income countries, compared with a decrease of 5.8 percent in high-income countries in the same period.
"While rising antibiotic use in low- and middle-income countries can be seen as a positive indicator of economic development and improved access to healthcare, it also poses significant risks, primarily due to the threat of antibiotic resistance," said Klein.
The study found that the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 resulted in significantly lower antibiotic rates across all income groups, but especially among high-income countries, whose antibiotic consumption fell by 17.8 percent in one year.
The scientists projected that global antibiotic consumption could be expected to rise by 52.3 percent by 2030, to 75.1 billion daily doses.
"There is no silver bullet to the problem of antibiotic resistance," said Klein, explaining that it required both the conservation of current antibiotics and the development of new treatments to treat bacterial infections.
Klein said that much of the problem with antibiotic resistance was down to systemic issues, that would require political and cultural changes in medicine to solve.
At an individual level, he said, people should be aware that antibiotics were effective for bacterial infections, not against viruses, and could come with side effects, such as diarrhea, yeast infections, skin rashes and possible allergic reactions.
"The important thing is to listen to your physician and understand that the majority of colds in the winter are viral based," said Klein. "So, discuss with your provider the need for antibiotics and take them as directed, if indicated."
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Reference
Klein, E. Y., Impalli, I., Poleon, S., Denoel, P., Cipriano, M., Van Boeckel, T. P., Pecetta, S., Bloom, D. E., Nandi, A. (2024). Global trends in antibiotic consumption during 2016–2023 and future projections through 2030, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121(49). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2411919121
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