The fight against antimicrobial resistance: progress and challenges

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – when microbes evolve to resist the medicines designed to kill them – is an urgent global threat. In England, resistant infections rose by 4% in 2022 after decreasing during the pandemic. Action is needed to curb inappropriate antibiotic use, a key driver of resistance.

In 2013, we set up the English Surveillance Programme for Antimicrobial Utilisation and Resistance (ESPAUR) to collect data on the use of, and resistance to, these medicines. The 10th edition of the ESPAUR report, covering 2022 to 2023 has just been published.

In this post we highlight some of the progress and challenges reported.