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.