Almost a century ago, the discovery of antimicrobials changed the course of modern medicine. We saw previously fatal infections—pneumonia, sepsis, tuberculosis—become treatable, and surgeries become safer. Millions upon millions of lives have been saved since then.
But that is changing. Today, due to misuse and overuse of these medicines, medical advances long taken for granted are at risk of being erased. Bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites are quickly changing and becoming resistant to antimicrobials. Globally, one in six bacterial infections now resists standard antibiotics amid rising rates of resistance. The result: common infections are becoming harder to treat — increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.
As a doctor and surgeon in Tonga, I visited provincial hospitals and saw patients battling infections that no longer responded to the medicines we relied on. I remember a young child brought in with sepsis. We tried every antibiotic available, but nothing worked. Unfortunately, the child did not survive. That moment has stayed with me as a constant reminder that antimicrobials are precious, fragile tools in a physician’s arsenal - tools we are in danger of losing.
The pandemic of antimicrobial resistance – or AMR - isn’t a science-fiction scenario. In many ways, it’s already here.
Countering the threat of antimicrobial resistance. More>>>>>>>>>>>
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