Antimicrobial resistance and the Iraq wars: armed conflict as an underinvestigated pathway with growing significance

While antibiotic misuse and overuse has often been the focus of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) science and policy, clinical microbiology in the Middle East is turning to evaluating war and conflict as drivers to antimicrobial resistance. 

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is rising globally at an alarming rate and, if left unaddressed, expected to cause 10 million deaths per year by 2050. This growing threat has widely been attributed to the overuse and misuse of antibiotics and/or the use of substandard antibiotics in humans, livestock and as a byproduct of environmental contamination.