Specialty Lead for Infection calls research into antimicrobial resistance an “urgent priority”

To mark World Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Awareness Week, Health and Care Research Wales’ Specialty Lead for Infection is calling for more research to help tackle the growing threat of so-called ‘superbugs’.  

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) means that illnesses caused by infection are becoming increasingly resistant to drugs traditionally used to treat them. While some resistance is natural, it is being accelerated by the over-use of antibiotics, in both humans and animals. By 2050 it is projected that such superbugs could directly kill nearly 2 million people a year and play a role in the deaths of as many as 8 million, across the world.  

Professor Angharad Davies, Health and Care Research Wales Specialty Lead for Infection, chaired a series of Global AMR webinars for the Royal College of Pathologists and spoke on the evolution of AMR at the College’s International Pathology Day event in November.  

Professor Davies said,

The ability to treat infections safely has transformed medicine. Without this, healthcare we take for granted today, such as safe childbirth and routine surgery, not to mention complex treatments like cancer chemotherapy, are at risk. That is why we need to address the challenge of AMR as an urgent priority for the whole of healthcare.” 

Former Chief Medical Officer for England, and UK AMR envoy to the UN Dame Sally Davies, also recently repeated calls for greater recognition of the threat of AMR, saying action must be prioritised. 

The problem is made more complicated by the fact that the causes of AMR are not just confined to human medicine. While doctors have been urged to prescribe antibiotics only when necessary, and the public asked to use them exactly as prescribed, the use of antibiotics in agriculture and aquaculture and its knock-on effects on the environment are also making a major contribution.  

In an interview with the BBC earlier this year, Professor Davies said research across different sectors would be key to tackling this complex challenge: "The causes are complex. We can’t only approach this in one sector.”  

The Welsh Government welcomed the publication of the next five year stage of the UK’s action plan to reduce AMR by 2040, and recently published its own latest annual targets for reducing healthcare associated infections (HCAIs) and AMR,. Targets include reducing total antimicrobial use in primary care by 10% by 2030, and by 5% in secondary care, as well as increasing awareness of AMR among NHS’ workforces.