A new report from the World Bank predicts losses of up to
$100 trillion by 2050 from antibiotic resistance.
The global economic damage would be as bad as the 2008
financial crisis..
The report says a “high-case scenario” where antibiotics and
other antimicrobial drugs no longer successfully treat infections have the
potential to: lower annual global gross domestic product (GDP) by as much as
3.8 percent by 2050; add 28.3 million more people to the ranks of those in
extreme poverty over the next 34 years; reduce world trade by as much as 3.8
percent; and decrease global livestock production by as much as 7.4 percent per
year.
“The scale and nature of this economic threat could wipe out
hard-fought development gains and take us away from our goals of ending extreme
poverty and boosting shared prosperity,” said Jim Yong Kim, president of
the World Bank Group.
“The cost of inaction is unaffordable – especially for the
poorest countries. We must urgently change course to avert this potential crisis.”
It gives me no pleasure to remind long-term followers that I have been warning about antibiotic resistance for 40 years, and decrying the use of sub-therapeutic levels to improve growth rates and feed conversion.
