A new government-commissioned report has forecast devastating human and economic impacts of rising antimicrobial resistance.

The report, by economist Jim O’Neill, suggests that by 2050, drug-resistant infections will kill an extra ten million people a year worldwide and that the total global cost of antimicrobial resistance will be $100 trillion (£64 trillion). Once the impact of antimicrobial resistance on modern healthcare treatments like surgery or cancer treatments is taken into account, the report says the total cost could rise to $210 trillion (£134 trillion).

E. coli is identified as the bacterial infection which will have the greatest economic impact, accounting for nearly half the total cost.

 
Many scientists believe that the overuse of antibiotics in farming is contributing significantly to the rise of resistance in human E. coli infections, with some even saying that for resistant E. coli "We are what we eat". Campaigners in the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics have said the findings show that much more urgent action is needed to reduce antibiotic use in all sectors, including farming

Coilin Nunan, the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Alliance, said on Friday, "This report shows the urgent need to tackle the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in farming. According to the World Health Organization, more antibiotics are used worldwide to treat healthy animals than are used to treat sick humans. Most farm antibiotics are used to lower the cost of producing intensively farmed pigs and chickens, rather than for improving animal health and welfare.

"We now know that this cheap-food policy is fundamentally misguided as the huge societal costs being forecast are simply not affordable.

"We urgently need the government, farmers and retailers address the problem and to put an end to the routine use of antibiotics in animal feed and drinking water."