The Journal of Antimicrobial of Chemotherapy (JAC) recently published on the Canadian antibiotic stewardship campaign ‘Using Antibiotics Wisely’. This national campaign did not have the desired effect of reducing antibiotic prescribing. Dr Oliver Van Hecke was disappointed, but not surprised. Here, he explains why…

A BSAC funded project, a collaboration between University College London in the UK, HerpeZ in Zambia  and the Institute of Endemic Diseases in Sudan, is now recruiting patients to take part in a ground-breaking study exploring whether changes to infection prevention and control policies that were introduced due to COVID actually make it more likely that patients will catch other, potentially drug-resistant, infections while in hospital. Project lead, Dr Linzy Elton, explains more…

Yesterday, the UK government won a vote to keep the budget for international development at 0.5% of national income, down from the 0.7% figure, which was in place until earlier this year. The decision has drawn a furious response, not least from former Prime Ministers John Major and Theresa May, the latter of whom accused the government of ‘turning its back on the poorest in world’.

As Professor Philip Howard prepares to pass the torch to our new President, Dr David Jenkins, he looks back at the highs and lows of the last three years… And the challenges that BSAC, and the wider healthcare community, face ahead.

In some ways, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a lot like the problem of climate change. Both are complex existential threats that demand an equally complex response: new legislation, better market incentives, innovative new technologies, not to mention a sea-change in our relationship with animals, and towards consumption in general. They also require that people, at an individual level, to ‘do their bit’ and change their behaviours...

The Bad Bugs Book Club was set up in 2009 as a place for members to read and then discuss novels in which infectious disease forms some part of the story. In this post, founder Professor Joanna Verran explains how the club aims to get people interested in science and literature, understand more about microbiology, and meet new people along the way...

To celebrate our 50th anniversary, we’re inviting a select number of experts to share what they see as being the 21st-century solutions to one of the biggest and most complex challenges of our generation: antimicrobial resistance. In this post, Andreas Voss, Professor of Infection Control at Radboud University, explores the future of infection prevention and control...

Following a car accident at the age of twenty-five, Vanessa Carter contracted a drug-resistant infection due to a ‘superbug’ (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA). Yet she was more than a year into her recovery before she even heard the term “antibiotic resistance”. In this post, she explains how, as a patient, she felt shut out of crucial conversations about her health, and highlights the importance of involving patients in the fight against AMR…