Antimicrobial Resistance – A new Pandemic
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) may be a term most people are unfamiliar with, as its yet to gain mainstream media headlines. But it should be on the front page of every newspaper! AMR has been described as the “Overlooked Pandemic” ( Laxminarayan 2022 ). New Research revealed that in 2019 there were an estimated 4.95million deaths associated with bacterial AMR ( Murray et al 2022 ). The UK government’s R eview of Antimicrobial Resistance declared that by 2050 10 million people could die every year from AMR. AMR is caused when bacteria, that can cause infections and disease, are exposed to sublethal levels of the drugs that are used to eradicate them ( Kuile et al 2016 ). The bacteria contrive de novo resistance and subsequent use of the antibiotics on these bacteria becomes ineffective ( Murray et al 2022 ). This relates to food, as agriculture is the biggest user of antibiotics, accounting globally for 50-80% of all antibiotics used ( Kuile et al 2016 ). ...
