Climate change is making the world hotter and contributing to rising deaths. Now, researchers have found another serious health risk linked to the climate crisis.
A new study has found that climate change may be increasing antibiotic resistance worldwide. Experts warn that this could create serious risks for human health.
The study, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, said antibiotic resistance is becoming one of the fastest-growing threats to global health. It can affect people of all ages in every country and may contribute to more than 1 million deaths each year.
Researchers found a link between climate change and antibiotic resistance in Salmonella, one of the world’s most common bacterial infections.
According to the study, climate change caused a 10% increase in antibiotic resistance linked to Salmonella between 1940 and 2040.
The researchers said the unnecessary and excessive use of antibiotics remains the main cause of antibiotic resistance. However, they added that climate change is making the problem worse.
They said evidence suggests that climate change has helped spread antibiotic resistance across the world.
Researchers explained that rising global temperatures are making the issue more serious. They said climate change may be changing how bacteria behave and increasing their ability to resist medicines used against them.
They added that governments need to develop policies that reduce the health effects of climate change.
Earlier research has also linked higher temperatures with stronger bacterial resistance. However, global-level research on this connection has remained limited.
For this study, researchers examined data from more than 480,000 Salmonella samples collected in 139 countries between 1940 and 2023.
They compared changes in average temperature with the levels of genes that help bacteria resist antibiotics.
The researchers found that rising temperatures not only increased antibiotic resistance but also changed the genes that drive this resistance.
The findings add to growing concern that climate change is not only affecting weather, food security and heat-related deaths, but also weakening the effectiveness of important medicines.
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