Antibiotic pollution and infant mortality in India: a research note

Christelle Dumas, Ximena JÃ tiva and Stefanie Baumgartner
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Christelle Dumas: University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Ximena JÃ tiva: UNICEF Innocenti
Stefanie Baumgartner: University of Fribourg, Switzerland

No 543, FSES Working Papers from Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Freiburg/Fribourg Switzerland

Abstract: 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 con-tributes 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.

Keywords: Pollution; Health; Antibiotic production; Antibiotic resistance; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 O15 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2025-07-01
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