LONDON, Feb 26, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Superbugs directly cause some 7,600 UK
deaths each year and contribute to around 35,200 more, a report said
Wednesday, warning the government was making "limited progress" in tackling
rising infections.

The bugs -- strains of bacteria or pathogens that have become resistant to
antibiotics, making them much harder to treat -- have been recognised as a
rising threat to global health.

Surgeries such as Caesarean sections or joint replacements could one day
become too dangerous to perform without antibiotics, experts have warned
previously.

In the UK "drug-resistant infections in humans have increased by 13 percent
since 2018, despite a target to reduce them by 10 percent", the study by the
National Audit Office, which scrutinises UK government spending, said.

The report said the UK's crumbling hospitals were hampering efforts by the
state-funded National Health Service (NHS) to control antimicrobial
resistance (AMR) by unnecessarily exposing patients to infections.

"The NHS estate has seriously deteriorated in recent years, with some
hospitals and other healthcare settings not meeting the demands of modern
medicine," the study said.

"Old buildings and equipment may be harder to service and keep clean, and
there are insufficient side rooms to isolate infectious patients," it added.

The vast majority of the UK population relies on the NHS for health care and
funding the service is a major political issue.

The NAO said that despite a "structured, cross-government approach to AMR for
over a decade" the past five years had seen "limited progress".

"The UK remains a long way from the 20-year vision the government expressed
in 2019," the authors said.

Of five domestic targets set in 2019, only one -- reducing the use of
antibiotics in food-producing animals -- was met, but one year later than
planned.

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said antimicrobial resistance presented "a
major public health threat".

"Government is responding but, so far, the results have been limited and the
country needs to become more resilient to this long-term risk," he added.

On current trends, deaths directly caused by superbugs are forecast to rise
to 1.9 million a year globally in 2050 and play a role in 8.2 million more,
according to a study published in The Lancet last year.

Superbugs caused an estimated 1.1 million deaths worldwide in 2021 with 4.7
million deaths linked, it found.

The World Health Organization has declared antimicrobial resistance a global
health crisis, setting up a task force to study alternative treatments.