This year, more than any other in modern times, has been dominated by an infectious disease: Covid-19. With hopes growing that science will put an end to the pandemic in 2021, thanks mainly to vaccines developed at a huge cost, the world must prepare to tackle another great infectious threat: antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, was rising up the list of global health priorities pre-Covid, as policymakers began to realise that “superbugs’’ were evolving because of the overuse of existing antibiotics and failure to develop new ones. Although the pandemic inevitably distracted attention away from bacteria, some progress has been made this year — notably the pharmaceutical industry’s establishment of a $1bn action fund to support the development of new antibiotics.
Next year it will be essential to step up the battle against drug-resistant bacteria, which already kill an estimated 700,000 people a year and may kill as many as 10m a year by 2050, according to World Health Organization projections. Action is needed on three broad fronts: keeping existing antibiotics for when they are really needed; more research to discover and develop new drugs; and financial incentives to bring the most promising ones to market.