Lack of access to antibiotics is a major global health challenge

Antibiotic resistance is an emerging global public health threat spurred by the overuse and misuse of antibiotics. While “overuse” of antibiotics is widely accepted as a major health challenge, it is less well known that many people in low- and middle-income countries continue to die because they lack access to antibiotics. The majority of the world’s annual 5.7 million antibiotic-treatable deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries where the mortality burden from treatable bacterial infections far exceeds the estimated annual 700,000 deaths from antibiotic-resistant infections.