Antibiotic-resistant infections directly killed 1.2million people in 2019, according to the largest study of its kind that lays bare the growing threat of superbugs.
This would make superbugs a bigger global killer than AIDS or malaria, which killed 860,000 and 640,000 that year, respectively. In comparison, Covid killed an estimated 3.5million people in 2021.
On top of direct deaths, researchers estimate superbugs were also a potential factor in another 5million deaths globally in 2019.
Researchers from the University of Washington