Drug resistant infections and the superbugs that cause them are an increasing challenge for health systems, globally. The technical term is antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which occurs when microorganisms evolve to resist medicines, represents an exceptional and growing threat to the way we treat diseases, to the way we are enabled to perform routine surgeries and to the way we roll out treatments when we temporarily suppress the immune system, including chemotherapy.

Medical students are the prescribers of the future. Unfortunately, extremely little attention has been focused on training them in the principles of antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), as evidenced by surveys that have consistently shown that final-year medical students lack confidence in correctly prescribing antibiotics.

As part of an ongoing series, our journal, JAC-AMR, is shining the spotlight on qualitative research in the field of antimicrobial stewardship, with the aim of expanding and strengthening qualitative research in this field. In this post, Dr Dena van den Bergh explores the under-recognised value of qualitative research, and why new need more publishing space for multidisciplinary qualitative research.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has understandably hogged the headlines for the last few years, there is another, ‘slow-motion’ pandemic taking place at the same time: Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). In this post, Dr Louise Sweeney, Consultant Medical Microbiologist, Liverpool, explores what COVID-19 can teach us when it comes to treating all infectious diseases…

According to the Global Action Fund for Fungal Infection, over 300 million people around the world are afflicted with a serious fungal infection every year and 25 million are at high risk of dying or losing their sight. Yet there is a persistent sense that fungal infections receive neither the attention nor the funding afforded to infectious diseases caused by viruses or bacteria. With this in mind, we invited Gavin Barlow, Senior Clinical Lecturer in Infection at Hull York Medical School and Hon. Physician in Infectious Diseases, Hull University Teaching Hospitals, to explain why we mustn’t forget fungal infection…

It’s estimated that around half of all women in the UK will suffer at least one urinary tract infection (UTI) at some point in their lives. Yet despite being the leading source of bacterial bloodstream infections, UTIs remain a chronically neglected area of infectious diseases. With that in mind, we invited Dr Annie Joseph, Consultant Microbiologist at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, to discuss what needs to happen so that UTIs, and patients, finally get the attention they deserve….

The Journal of Antimicrobial 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…