New Delhi, Nov 22: Infection continues to be the greatest cause of mortality worldwide while a new Lancet study has reported that at least 6.8 lakh deaths in India were caused by five bacteria in 2019.

These are E. coli, along with S. pneumoniae, K. pneumoniae, S. aureus, and A. baumanii. In India, E. Coli alone caused nearly 1.6 lakh deaths in 2019.

The 33 bacterial infections (both resistant and susceptible to antimicrobials) across the 11 infectious syndromes caused 77 lakh deaths globally.

The Lancet study stated that "the 33 bacterial pathogens that we investigated in this study are a substantial source of health loss globally, with considerable variation in their distribution across infectious syndromes and locations"

"Hence, they should be considered an urgent priority for intervention within the global health community. Strategies to address the burden of bacterial infections include infection prevention, optimised use of antibiotics, improved capacity for microbiological analysis, vaccine development, and improved and more pervasive use of available vaccines," the scientists noted.

Using techniques from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 and a portion of the input data described in the Global Burden of Antimicrobial Resistance 2019 study, the researchers calculated the number of deaths related to 33 bacterial genera or species across 11 infectious syndromes in 2019.