Vaccination Remains Paramount for Combating Antimicrobial Resistance

Preventing infections through vaccination is paramount for reducing the need for antibiotics hence combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – one of the leading public health threats of the 21^st century, according to research by the Lancet on the Global Burden of Bacterial Antimicrobial Resistance.

In 2019, the researchers found that approximately 4.95 million deaths were linked to bacterial AMR with 1.27 million deaths directly caused by drug-resistant bacterial infections globally.

Sub-Saharan Africa reported the highest burden of deaths attributable to and associated with AMR, with Western sub-Saharan Africa recording 27 deaths in every 100,000 samples attributable to AMR and 114 deaths per 100,000 associated with AMR.

The study which was carried out in 204 countries and territories across the globe, obtained data from systematic literature reviews, hospital systems, surveillance systems, and other sources, covering 471 million individual records and 7585 study-location-years