Drawing on key learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic, the IMC has published a new White Paper, outlining 29 key recommendations, which the coalition hopes will support the UK Government’s 20-year vision of a world in which AMR is effectively contained, controlled, and mitigated.

These recommendations stress the importance of infection prevention and control measures to tackle AMR, targeting both healthcare-associated and community-associated infections. Central to these recommendations is the need to establish a global network of laboratories that all work to a single baseline standard to track and report on rates of resistance. The creation of such a network is both crucial and urgent, as BSAC’s President, Dr David Jenkins, explains in his foreword:

‘Without such an early-warning defence network – without access to accurate and contemporaneous surveillance data, without knowing how to prescribe antimicrobial treatment – all other attempts at targeted support are likely to be compromised.

‘Indeed, the UK Government’s own 20-year vision cannot be delivered without the extensive development of microbiology laboratories, especially in low- and middle-income countries where rates of resistance represent an unknown quantity, currently.’

BSAC are pleased to join the call for enactment of this bold and ambitious plan and look forward to working with the IMC as we continue to build upon this activity into the year and beyond.

Read the White Paper here