News

Key messages The rising resistance to third-line antibiotics – the drugs that are considered as the last line of defence against serious illness – poses a worrisome threat to population health. When microbes develop resistance to last-resort antibiotics, it severely undermines the effectiveness of available medical treatments and procedures such as chemotherapy, organ transplants and surgeries, making it more difficult and costly to treat infections and exacerbating the risk of complications and deaths. The annual cost to the health systems in these countries is estimated to reach around USD PPP 28.9 billion every year and the annual cost to the broader economies is at around USD PPP 36.9 billion. For example, the annual average cost of implementing a One Health package – involving action in human health and the food sector – is around five times lower than the savings in health expenditure and gains in productivity combined.