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INTRODUCTION Do we really want another 'new normal'? Longitude Prize Team Global Health, Nesta Challenges
In just a matter of months, the Covid-19 pandemic has turned the world on its head, laying bare the vulnerability of human health, the potential of global contagion, and the fragility of our public health infrastructure. We have also seen the disruption of everyday life and things we took for granted. National governments have implemented sweeping social restrictions to contain the spread of the disease, introducing radical measures to shore up jobs and markets. For many, this was unimaginable just 12 months ago. Yet, the threat of the global spread of a highly infectious disease -- 'Disease X' -- had been anticipated and forewarned by the World Health Organization (WHO) for some time. Covid-19 carries all the hallmarks of the 'Disease X'. What can we learn from this in regards to the battle against antimicrobial resistance (AMR)? At Nesta Challenges – home to the Longitude Prize, an £8m prize to accelerate the development of a point-of-care diagnostic test that will conserve antibiotics for future generations – we’ve been asking ourselves this question. Accelerated by the misuse and overuse of antibiotics, drug-resistant bacteria – or 'superbugs' – are multiplying rapidly. Common bacteria, like Escherichia coli and Enterobacter which cause urinary tract infections (UTIs), are developing resistance to drugs and are deemed critical on the WHO’s priority pathogens list. Today, too few new antibacterial treatments are in development, rapid diagnostics are still not funded at an effective scale and pace, and antibiotic stewardship is faltering as a result. Superbugs claim the lives of 700,000 people worldwide every year. As more drugs stop working, more lives will be put in danger. By 2050, an anticipated 10 million lives will be lost as a result of a resistant infection if we do not act now. That’s greater than the current population of New York City, London or Paris. The Covid-19 experience has taught us that the general public responds well to accurate data about serious health threats. Numbers matter – but so does the first-person experience. For many of us, Covid-19 became real when journalists started reporting and sharing footage from the hospital wards where patients were being treated. Action on AMR doesn’t need to be a polarised 'either or' discussion of what evidence matters, numbers vs stories — it needs both. AMR Voices gives a platform for people living with drug-resistant infections, those that have survived them and to the clinicians contending with them, and captures their views on the pandemic. The stories included in this report shine a light on the deep interconnections between AMR and Covid-19.
