“Climate Change and Antimicrobial Resistance: A Looming Health Crisis”
Climate change is often considered the single biggest threat to human health, with the potential to claim as many as one billion lives due to extreme weather events, heatwaves, droughts, flooding, infectious disease outbreaks, and food shortages. However, the current forecasts fail to account for the inevitable increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which could exacerbate the health impacts of climate change.
Recent evidence suggests that adverse weather conditions and rising temperatures can facilitate the emergence and spread of drug-resistant pathogens. Higher temperatures are associated with increased bacterial growth and infection rates, as well as putting selective pressure on microbes to mutate and develop antibiotic resistance. For example, a study in China found that each 1C increase in air temperature was linked to a 14% increase in drug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae infections and a 6% increase in drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections.
Extreme weather events, such as floods and droughts, are also expected to increase the spread of infectious diseases and drug resistance. These events disrupt access to clean water and sanitation, making prevention and control of infections more challenging. Urban density further accelerates the transmission of pathogens, and the climate crisis could displace 1.2 billion people by 2050, leading to more crowded cities and increased health risks.
Antimicrobial resistance is already a global crisis, responsible for nearly five million deaths in 2019. The World Health Organization has identified AMR as one of the ten major threats to global health, alongside climate change. However, many global health reports and policy responses fail to address the relationship between climate change and AMR, hindering our ability to effectively combat both challenges.
To address the mounting AMR crisis exacerbated by climate change, there is a need to focus on preventing and controlling infections and ensuring the judicious use of effective antibiotics. This includes developing new antibiotics, improving access to essential antibiotics, particularly in lower-income countries, and ensuring equitable distribution to the communities most affected by AMR.
Global policymakers must increase funding for AMR research and include AMR in climate change contingencies to effectively respond to new forms of drug resistance. Viewing drug resistance and rising temperatures as interconnected challenges is crucial for addressing the health impacts of climate change. By taking action at high-level meetings and conferences, such as the UN high-level meeting on AMR and the UN Climate Change Conference, we can better prepare for the health risks posed by climate change and antimicrobial resistance.