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Antibiotic resistance: a call to action to prevent the next epidemic of inequality

Nature Medicine volume 27, pages 187–188 (2021)Cite this article

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To the Editor — The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the deadly impacts of structural racism and systemic health inequalities on racial and ethnic minorities in the USA. Black and Hispanic/Latinx populations have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, accounting for nearly half of the cases and 37% of the deaths so far, despite making up less than a third of the US population1. This stark imbalance has highlighted the need to examine the role of racial and ethnic disparities in shaping health outcomes.

Antibiotic resistance (AR) is widely considered to be the next global pandemic. When bacteria no longer respond to antibiotics, treatment is more costly and burdensome and is much less likely to succeed. As many as 162,000 US adults die from multidrug-resistant bacterial infections each year, which makes resistant infections the third leading cause of death2. Rising concerns about both the health impacts and economic impacts of AR have led to national efforts to increase surveillance, minimize inappropriate antibiotic use, jumpstart the development of diagnostics and antibiotics, and increase awareness of AR. However, the idea that AR could disproportionately impact racial and ethnic minorities has not yet entered the scientific discourse.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by the Stuart B. Levy Center for Integrated Management of Antimicrobial Resistance at Tufts (Levy CIMAR), a collaboration of Tufts Medical Center and the Tufts University Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) Research and Scholarship Strategic Plan (RSSP).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA

    Maya L. Nadimpalli

  2. Stuart B. Levy Center for Integrated Management of Antimicrobial Resistance, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA

    Maya L. Nadimpalli & Shira Doron

  3. Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Tufts Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

    Courtney W. Chan & Shira Doron

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  1. Maya L. Nadimpalli
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  2. Courtney W. Chan
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  3. Shira Doron
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M.L.N. and S.D. conceived of the idea. All authors developed the first draft, made substantial revisions, and read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Maya L. Nadimpalli.

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Nadimpalli, M.L., Chan, C.W. & Doron, S. Antibiotic resistance: a call to action to prevent the next epidemic of inequality. Nat Med 27, 187–188 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-01201-9

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