The use of antibiotics in the world increased by 65 percent between 2000 and 2015, especially in underdeveloped and medium-developed countries, which threatens global health, scientists warn.
Experts point out right at the beginning of the report that "antibiotic resistance, as a consequence of their excessive use, is a growing threat to global health."
A study published Monday in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which is partly based on predictions, warns:
"Worldwide use of antibiotics in 2015 was estimated at 42,3 billion standard prescribed daily doses for adults".
In the 76 countries where the research was conducted, the use of antibiotics increased from 21,1 billion standard prescribed daily doses in 2000 to 34,8 billion in 2015.
Resistance is responsible for the death of 700.000 people a year
Compared to the growth of their gross domestic product, the level of antibiotic use has increased especially in underdeveloped and medium-developed countries: by 114 percent in sixteen years and amounts to 24,5 billion standard prescribed daily doses.
Eili Klein, a researcher at the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy and one of the study's authors, says this increase means "better access to needed drugs in countries with a large number of diseases that can be successfully treated with antibiotics."
But at the same time, he warns: "As more and more countries gain access to this type of drug, the rate (of use) will increase (...), which will cause a higher rate of resistance" to antibiotics.
Such bacterial resistance is responsible for the death of 700.000 people a year worldwide, according to a group of international experts founded in 2014 in Great Britain.
The use of antibiotics is lower in rich countries and amounts to 10,3 billion standard prescribed daily doses. Between 2000 and 2015, the increase was only six percent.
Save humanity from the strange platypus
In 2015, Turkey, Tunisia, Algeria and Romania were among the six countries with the highest rate of antibiotic use.
In the last sixteen years, the use of antibiotics has doubled in India, in China by 79 percent and in Pakistan by 65 percent. Those three countries are the largest consumers of antibiotics among underdeveloped and medium-developed countries.
On the contrary, the increase was insignificant in the three countries that are the first in consumption among the rich countries, in the United States, France and Italy, according to the study.
Antibiotic resistance could claim ten million lives by 2050, a recently published British study estimated.
Humanity could be saved from a strange platypus, writes Hina. This animal that lives in Australia is one of the rare mammals that lay eggs. Australian scientists recently discovered that the protein in the mother's milk of a strange platypus may have a healing effect on humans, reports Radio Sarajevo.
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