Antibiotic resistance could cause over 39 million deaths by 2050, study says

More than 39 million people could die of antibiotic-resistant infections between now and 2050, according to a study published Monday in The Lancet. The authors of the study forecast a nearly 70 percent increase in deaths due to antimicrobial resistance from 2022 to 2050 with older people most at risk and driving the rise in fatalities. Such resistance, also known as AMR, occurs when microbes, such as bacteria and fungi, evolve in a way that makes them harder to kill with existing medications. “It’s a big problem, and it is...