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…

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...