On Sept. 16, 2024, a study by the Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) Project reported that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) was projected to kill almost 40 million in the next thirty years. The study revealed that more than one million people died annually as a result of AMR between 1990 and 2021.

AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites evolve over time and no longer respond to medicines making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.

The first GRAM study, published in 2022 found that global AMR-related deaths in 2019 were higher than those from HIV/AIDS or malaria, leading directly to 1.2 million deaths and playing a role in a further 4.95 million deaths. The study was published in The Lancet.