Climate Crisis Triggers New Threat: Antibiotics Are Becoming Resistant to Bacteria

JAKARTA - The climate crisis is now not just about hot weather, floods, or crop failures. Recent studies show that global warming is also related to the increase in antibiotic resistance in the world.

Quoted from The Guardian, Thursday, May 28, the set published in the Lancet Planetary Health journal found that climate change was associated with a 10 percent increase in antibiotic resistance genes in salmonella globally between 1940 and 2023.

Salmonellosis is a bacterial infection, mainly caused by contaminated food or water.

Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria become immune to drugs that should kill them. As a result, infections are more difficult to treat. This condition already kills more than 1 million people every year, according to experts' estimates.

The study was led by researchers from the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Switzerland, and China. They analyzed the genomes of more than 480,000 salmonella samples from 139 countries in the range of 1940 to 2023.

The results are alarming. As many as 82 percent of the countries studied experienced an increase in antibiotic resistance genes in salmonella.

The strongest climate-related increases are found in the Middle East and North Africa. After that, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

The main cause of antibiotic resistance remains the excessive and inappropriate use of antibiotics. For example, antibiotics are taken without a prescription, not used according to the rules, or used for diseases that do not actually require antibiotics.

However, researchers say climate change is exacerbating the situation. Rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns can affect the way bacteria survive, mutate, and spread.

According to The Guardian, the study's authors stated that the accumulated evidence shows that climate change is a force that accelerates the global spread of antimicrobial resistance.

The term antimicrobial includes drugs to fight microorganisms, including bacteria. Antibiotics are one type of antimicrobial.

The researchers also found a relationship between temperature, rainfall, and changes in the number of resistance genes. The pattern is not simple. Resistance does not automatically rise straight with each increase in temperature. It changes according to a combination of temperature and rain.

This means that a changing environment can help bacteria adapt more quickly to antibiotics.

Even so, this study does not conclude that climate change directly causes an increase in antibiotic resistance. What is found is a strong relationship between the two.

The study's authors consider these findings important because until now, antibiotic resistance management has focused more on drug use. In fact, the changing climate also needs to be taken into account.

They called for more serious climate policies, more responsible use of antibiotics, and better disease surveillance.

If the temperature continues to rise and antibiotics are still used indiscriminately, bacteria have more room to win. As a result, drugs that were once powerful can slowly lose their ability.