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Tackling AMR: How to keep antibiotics working for the next century
2024

Tackling AMR: How to keep antibiotics working for the next century

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the ability of infectious organisms, including bacteria, to survive the agents designed to kill them and save patients from infection. AMR is an immense public health threat on a global scale. Unless we act now, people may once again die in droves from common infections or routine operations. Current estimates suggest that AMR will lead to more than 10 million deaths and direct healthcare costs of up to $1 trillion annually by 2050. Tackling AMR requires a multisectoral response spanning healthcare as well as the food industry, sanitation, hygiene, society at large. Yet as laid bare by the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, health systems remain ill equipped to collaboratively tackle public health emergencies on a global scale. Building on the 2013 WISH report “Antimicrobial resistance: In search of a collaborative solution”, this report will put forth a framework for policymakers to the looming AMR crisis, with clear actions at the local, national, regional and global scale.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the ability of infectious organisms, including bacteria, to survive the agents designed to kill them and save patients from infection. AMR is an immense public health threat on a global scale. Unless we act now, people may once again die in droves from common infections or routine operations. Current estimates suggest that AMR will lead to more than 10 million deaths and direct healthcare costs of up to $1 trillion annually by 2050. Tackling AMR requires a multisectoral response spanning healthcare as well as the food industry, sanitation, hygiene, society at large. Yet as laid bare by the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, health systems remain ill equipped to collaboratively tackle public health emergencies on a global scale. Building on the 2013 WISH report “Antimicrobial resistance: In search of a collaborative solution”, this report will put forth a framework for policymakers to the looming AMR crisis, with clear actions at the local, national, regional and global scale.

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Prof. Lord Ara Darzi

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Professor Dame Sally Davies

Dame Sally Davies was appointed as the United Kingdom (UK) Government’s Special Envoy on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in 2019. She is also the 40th Master of Trinity College in Cambridge University. Dame Sally was the Chief Medical Officer for England and Senior Medical Advisor to the UK Government from 2011-2019. She is a leading figure in global health, having served as a member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Executive Board 2014-2016, and as co-convener of the United Nations Inter-Agency Co-ordination Group (IACG) on AMR, reporting in 2019. In November 2020, Dame Sally was announced as a member of the new UN Global Leaders Group on AMR, serving alongside Heads of State, Ministers and prominent figures from around the world to advocate for action on AMR. In the 2020 New Year Honours, Dame Sally became the second woman (and the first outside the Royal family) to be appointed Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) for services to public health and research, having received her Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2009.

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