Daijiworld Media Network - Vienna
Vienna, Apr 14: In a sobering revelation, a new global study has found that more than three million children lost their lives in 2022 due to infections that did not respond to antibiotics, with the highest toll reported in Southeast Asia and Africa.
Released on Sunday in Austria by the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), the study shines a stark spotlight on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) a silent but deadly crisis that continues to grow in scale. The report warns that children are among the most vulnerable to antibiotic-resistant infections, often lacking access to timely and effective treatment.
According to the data, 752,000 child deaths occurred in Southeast Asia, while 659,000 were reported in Africa. The remaining 1.5 million fatalities were spread across other regions, the study revealed.
“AMR poses a critical threat to children, who are highly vulnerable to infections,” the report noted, stressing the urgent need for coordinated global and regional strategies to tackle paediatric AMR.
Professor Joseph Harwell, one of the study’s co-authors from the Clinton Health Access Initiative, explained that the overuse and misuse of antibiotics have allowed certain bacteria to evolve into ‘superbugs’, resistant to even the most powerful medications.
“If bacteria develop resistance to these antibiotics, there will be few, if any, alternatives for treating multidrug-resistant infections,” said Prof Harwell.
The study pointed out a massive rise in the use of Watch and Reserve category antibiotics drugs that should ideally be used with caution or only in severe cases. Alarmingly, these types of antibiotics were linked to over two million of the child deaths in 2022 alone.
Watch antibiotics carry a high risk of resistance and are meant to be used sparingly, while Reserve antibiotics are last-resort medicines used for critical infections. However, their increased use in Asia and Africa has raised red flags among global health experts.
Researchers attributed the rise in AMR-related fatalities in low- and middle-income countries to overcrowded hospitals, poor sanitation, weak infection control, and lack of robust surveillance systems to track resistance trends.
“Addressing this issue requires urgent and coordinated action at both regional and global levels,” the study concluded, urging governments and health institutions to act before the crisis worsens further.