Superbugs to kill 'more than cancer' by 2050

Drug resistant infections will kill an extra 10 million people a year worldwide - more than currently die from cancer - by 2050 unless action is taken, a study says.

They are currently implicated in 700,000 deaths each year, BBC reports.

The analysis, presented by the economist Jim O'Neill, said the costs would spiral to $100tn (£63tn).

The analysis was based on scenarios modelled by researchers Rand Europe and auditors KPMG.

They found that drug resistant E. coli, malaria and tuberculosis (TB) would have the biggest impact.

In Europe and the United States, antimicrobial resistance causes at least 50,000 deaths each year, they said. And left unchecked, deaths would rise more than 10-fold by 2050.

Mr O'Neill said his team would now be exploring what action could be taken to avert this looming crisis.

This would include looking at:

• how drug use could be changed to reduce the rise of resistance

• how to boost the development of new drugs

• the need for coherent international action concerning drug use in humans and animals

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