Could US foreign aid cuts fuel a superbug crisis?

The U.S. has scaled back foreign aid, and the consequences could be dire. Without funding for antimicrobial resistance programs, the world faces a growing crisis — one where infections once easily treated become untreatable, experts warn.

By Catherine Davison // 20 March 2025

The retraction of U.S. foreign aid could accelerate a superbug crisis, experts have warned, making many of the world’s diseases effectively untreatable.

Antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, occurs when pathogens evolve resistance to the drugs commonly used to treat them — an emerging global health crisis that has drawn growing alarm from leading scientists. In 2019, the World Health Organization named AMR among the top 10 health threats faced by humanity, and a landmark study published in The Lancet last year predicted that there would be 169 million deaths associated with AMR by 2050.

At last year’s United Nations General Assembly, global leaders approved a political declaration committing to increased action on AMR. But in the wake of U.S. foreign aid cuts and its announced withdrawal from WHO, global efforts to ramp up work on AMR will grind to a halt, said Ramanan Laxminarayan, an epidemiologist and founder of the One Health Trust.

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About the author

Catherine Davison
Catherine Davison is an independent journalist based in Delhi, India, writing on issues at the intersection of health, gender, and the environment.