来源：《新科学家》
原文见刊日期：2022年1月20日
More than a million people died from antibiotic-resistant infections across the globe in 2019, hundreds of thousands more than AIDS, according to a new estimate.
根据一项新的估计，2019年全球有100多万人死于抗生素耐药性感染，比死于艾滋病的人多出数十万。
Bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics are considered one of the biggest threats facing modern medicine. Overuse of such drugs has led to resistance becoming more widespread, raising the prospect that common infections such as pneumonia will become harder to treat.
对抗生素具有耐药性的细菌被认为是现代医学面临的最大威胁之一。过度使用抗生素已导致耐药性变得更加普遍，增加了肺炎等常见感染将变得更难治疗的可能性。
Mohsen Naghavi at the University of Washington in Seattle and his colleagues devised a model to estimate how many people died in 2019 from bacterial infections that could previously have been treated were it not for antimicrobial resistance (AMR). No such global survey has been conducted before.
西雅图华盛顿大学的Naghavi和他的同事设计了一个模型，来估计2019年有多少人死于细菌感染，且如果不是因为抗菌素耐药性(AMR)，这些感染本来可以得到治疗。此前从未进行过这样的全球调查。
The model was based on the medical records of 471 million people with antibiotic-resistant infections from 204 countries. The team scoured published studies and medical records to get as comprehensive a data set on AMR as possible. “For countries that had very little data, we calculated figures based on a regional pattern we developed,” says Naghavi.
该模型基于204个国家的4.71亿耐药感染者的医疗记录。该研究小组仔细查阅了已发表的研究报告和医疗记录，以获得尽可能全面的抗生素耐药性数据集。Naghavi说：“对于那些只有很少数据的国家，我们根据我们制定的区域模式来计算数据。”
The researchers found that about 1.3 million deaths could be directly attributed to AMR worldwide. They also found that a further 3.65 million deaths involved people who had diseases that showed some form of AMR. “We can’t say for certain that these deaths were due to antimicrobial resistance, but some may have been,” says Naghavi.
研究人员发现，全球约有130万例死亡可直接归因于抗生素耐药性。他们还发现，另外有365万例死亡涉及那些患有某种形式的抗生素耐药性疾病的人。Naghavi说：“我们不能肯定地说，这些死亡是由于抗菌素耐药性，但有些可能是。”
If both groups are included, it would make AMR the third leading cause of death globally in 2019 behind ischaemic heart attacks and strokes. Even the more conservative estimate would mean that AMR killed more people that year than AIDS, which was responsible for 680,000 deaths.
如果这两组都包括在内，那么抗生素耐药性将成为2019年全球第三大死亡原因，仅次于缺血性心脏病和中风。即使是更保守的估计，也意味着抗菌素耐药性导致的死亡人数超过了艾滋病，后者导致68万人死亡。
“The stark reality of these figures points to the critical and urgent need to increase resources for the basics of infection control. In many places, this means water, sanitation, hygiene,” says Clare Chandler at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
“这些数字的严峻现实表明，迫切需要为感染控制的基础工作增加资源。在许多地方，这意味着水、卫生设施和个人卫生，”伦敦卫生与热带医学学院的克莱尔·钱德勒说。
More than 70 per cent of deaths linked to AMR in the study were due to resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics such as penicillin. “We weren’t surprised by this because we know how much these drugs are prescribed in clinics,” says Naghavi.
在这项研究与抗生素耐药性有关的死亡病例中，超过70%是由于对青霉素等β-内酰胺类抗生素产生了耐药性。Naghavi说：“我们对此并不感到惊讶，因为我们知道这些药物在临床上的处方量。”
The key to tackling antimicrobial resistance is multifaceted, says Naghavi. “Developed countries need to prescribe fewer antibiotics and develop more vaccines for infectious diseases,” he says. Giving livestock fewer antibiotics, ensuring better hygiene in hospitals and improving surveillance of antimicrobial resistance is also important, he adds.
Naghavi说，解决抗菌素耐药性的关键是多方面的。他说：“发达国家需要减少抗生素的使用，开发更多的传染病疫苗。”他还说，减少给牲畜使用抗生素、确保医院的卫生条件改善以及改善对抗菌素耐药性的监测也很重要。