Strategies for achieving global collective action on antimicrobial resistance

Antimicrobial medicines now save millions of lives each year and many infectious diseases are far less deadly because of them.1 However, bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi develop resistance to existing medicines and few novel antimicrobial products are being produced. Antimicrobial resistance – i.e. resistance of microorganisms to an antimicrobial drug that was originally effective for treating the infection it causes – is both natural and inevitable. However, inappropriate antimicrobial use, falsified or substandard drugs and poor infection control accelerate the pace of evolutionary processes.