Air pollution linked with global rise in antibiotic resistance
Antibiotic resistance is a growing threat to global health. In 2019, it caused more than 1.27 million deaths worldwide—and it's projected that antimicrobial resistance (which includes bacterial resistance to antibiotics) may contribute to 10 million deaths per year by 2050. Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections such as urinary tract infections and pneumonia. But their misuse and overuse has contributed to the emergence of bacteria which harbor genes that enable them to withstand the killing power of antibiotics. This results in infections that are much harder to treat.
