AMR: The health crisis waiting to happen

The problem with crises is not that they are hard to foresee, but rather that we often choose to ignore expert warnings.

This was the case with the Coronavirus pandemic – the World Health Organization issued warnings on the imminence of a pandemic years ago.

Governments around the world ignored these, and the crisis was augmented by the lack of preparedness of medical systems.

Next in line could be a crisis caused by antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – something we have known about for years. If we do not act now to tackle this threat, we could face many more Corona-like crises in the near future.

In Romania, we have a saying: “Wise people build their sledge in the summer”. AMR is a threat to human life that knows no boundaries, and has the potential to reverse decades of medical progress to pre-antibiotic times, when a seemingly small flesh wound could become infected and potentially lead to death.

Today, bacteria resistant to antimicrobial treatment cause the premature deaths of nearly 33,000 European citizens every year.