UK rise in superbugs poses challenge for govt: study

LONDON: Superbugs directly cause some 7,600 UK deaths each year and contribute to around 35,200 more, a report said on Wednesday, warning the government was making “limited progress” in tackling rising infections.

The bugs -- strains of bacteria or pathogens that have become resistant to antibiotics, making them much harder to treat -- have been recognised as a rising threat to global health.

Surgeries such as Caesarean sections or joint replacements could one day become too dangerous to perform without antibiotics, experts have warned previously.

In the UK “drug-resistant infections in humans have increased by 13 percent since 2018, despite a target to reduce them by 10 percent”, the study by the National Audit Office, which scrutinises UK government spending, said.

The report said the UK´s crumbling hospitals were hampering efforts by the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) to control antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by unnecessarily exposing patients to infections.

“The NHS estate has seriously deteriorated in recent years, with some hospitals and other healthcare settings not meeting the demands of modern medicine,” the study said.