Antibiotic pollution and infant mortality in India: a research note

Dumas, Christelle; Játiva, Ximena; Baumgartner, Stefanie

doi:10.51363/unifr.ewp.c93w4h

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Research report

Antibiotic pollution and infant mortality in India: a research note

BP2-STS

Dumas, Christelle ORCID University of Fribourg
Játiva, Ximena UNICEF Innocenti
Baumgartner, Stefanie University of Fribourg

2025 ; Fribourg : FSES

40 p.

English The number of deaths from antibiotic resistance is steadily rising and has become a global public health issue. Children in low- and middle-income countries are disproportionately affected, as last-line antibiotics are usually unavailable to them. Pollution of riverways due to pharmaceutical products is one driver of resistance. We assess whether this channel contributes significantly to infant mortality in India. We show that living downstream of a producer increases the risk of infant mortality by 16% and that antibiotic production explains 17,000 infant deaths in India per year. This suggests that better monitoring, new regulations, improved production processes, and strategic considerations on the location of antibiotic producers are needed to ensure that production does not induce negative externalities on the local population.

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