Dr Peter Jackson, executive director of the AMR Centre explains why a new clinical trial taking place in the UK could represent a major step forward in the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Antimicrobial resistance
The way the coronavirus has affected our way of life and threatened global economic stability serves as an immediate reminder that when it comes to infectious diseases, it is impossible to understate the importance of preparedness.
While the AMR Centre’s focus, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), does not have the immediacy of the coronavirus viral pandemic, the ever-rising levels of drug-resistant bacterial infections around the world mean it is imperative we do everything we can to get ahead of the curve on AMR. Failing to do so, as charted by the UK government’s AMR review led by Jim O’Neill, would reverse decades of advances in treating infectious disease with antibiotics that now no longer work. No new, effective antibiotics would potentially lead to AMR claiming more lives than cancer, and would make even routine operations life threatening.